Source: Asami Kamioka (@asami_kamioka) - image reproduced with permission

Japanese pastry chef makes most adorable Animal Crossing cake for niece’s birthday

With so many people around the world focused on the Nintendo Switch title Animal Crossing: New Horizons, interest in the fun, community-building game only continues to rise. As a result, there have been creative efforts on multiple fronts focusing on New Horizons. For example, clothing brands from traditional kimono makers to contemporary fashion brands are offering up character designs, enterprising players are re-creating the worlds of Spirited Away or Sailor Moon, and Japanese illustrators are imagining ACNH characters as anime girls.

With many appealing characters and a cute aesthetic, it's not hard to see why the game is popular with kids. So, when pastry chef and talented sweets artist Asami Kamioka 上岡麻美 (@asami_kamioka) got a request from her 9-year-old niece to make an ACNH themed cake for her birthday, she was more than pleased to put her creativity and artistry to good use.

The result was so adorable and well-realized that we just had to share with you!

If the name Asami Kamioka looks familiar, you may recall seeing this talented artist's handiwork last year when we introduced her exquisite icing cookies commemorating the Reiwa Era:

#令和　をイメージしてアイシングクッキーで作ってみました? pic.twitter.com/JjZc5qTJwN
— 上岡麻美 (@asami_kamioka) April 1, 2019

Animal Crossing: New Horizon icing cookies

Since Kamioka specializes in beautifully iced cookies, it was only natural that cookies would form the centerpiece of her birthday cake for her niece. And what better subject to turn into cookies than the characters of the game? A quick look through her Twitter or Instagram account will show you that she has made character-based cookies before. Cute animals, Sylvania Family characters (she's an official 35th-anniversary ambassador) and many more populate her social media posts. This experience surely paid off when she set about recreating some of New Horizons' most popular denizens in cookie form.

Here's Dom! Everything from his perpetual frown to his tie-dye tee is spot on.

Reproduced with permission from Asami Kamioka 上岡麻美 (@asami_kamioka)

Kamioka posted a YouTube video (see below) showing how she made all the cookies...

(Note: These are screencaps showing her in the creation process, so some of the cookies are incomplete).

As you can see, she made Bluebear:

Reproduced with permission from Asami Kamioka 上岡麻美 (@asami_kamioka) | YouTube: "【あつまれどうぶつの森】アイシングクッキーで作ってみました♡Animal Crossing:New Horizons icingcookies♡동물의 숲아이싱 쿠"

...Beau...

Reproduced with permission from Asami Kamioka 上岡麻美 (@asami_kamioka) | YouTube: "【あつまれどうぶつの森】アイシングクッキーで作ってみました♡Animal Crossing:New Horizons icingcookies♡동물의 숲아이싱 쿠"

...Raymond...

Reproduced with permission from Asami Kamioka 上岡麻美 (@asami_kamioka) | YouTube: "【あつまれどうぶつの森】アイシングクッキーで作ってみました♡Animal Crossing:New Horizons icingcookies♡동물의 숲아이싱 쿠"

...and many more. She even included a cookie of the Switch controllers for good measure!

Reproduced with permission from Asami Kamioka 上岡麻美 (@asami_kamioka) | YouTube: "【あつまれどうぶつの森】アイシングクッキーで作ってみました♡Animal Crossing:New Horizons icingcookies♡동물의 숲아이싱 쿠"

The finished birthday cake

To fashion the cake, she also made a house, trees, and decorated it with grass icing and other details. With a total of 8 character cookies, including a player cookie (presumably her niece) in the center, she created what turned out to be an amazing and adorable Animal Crossing birthday cake. It doesn't take too much imagination to picture the smile on her niece's face when the cake was unveiled.