Start with the largest dough. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt to one side and the yeast to the other side. Do not let the salt and yeast touch yet.

Add the sugar and cinnamon and mix gently with a wooden spoon until well distributed.

Make a well in the centre of your ingredients and add the oil, water and food colouring. Add a little food colouring to begin with, especially if using black, as you will be able to add more later if necessary.

Mix it all together until a rough dough has formed.

If kneading by hand, pour the dough out onto a clean and floured surface and knead for around 10 minutes. If more colour is needed, add it during this process and the colour will distribute well while you need. Remember that the colour will develop over time so avoid adding too much. If kneading in a standing mixer with a dough hook, knead for around 5 minutes on a medium speed.

Your dough will be ready when it is smooth and elastic-like and passes the window pane test. If a small piece of it stretches between your fingers enough to allow light through before ripping, it is ready. If it rips straight away, knead for a few minutes more and check again.

Place your dough in a large lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel/cling film/beeswax paper and set aside while you make the dough for Totoro’s belly.

To make the belly, repeat steps 1 to 7 with the ingredients and measurements for the belly dough listed above. Remember to leave out the food colouring.

Leave both doughs to rise for an hour until doubled in size. You can leave the doughs on your kitchen side if it’s warm or place in the airing cupboard or low temperature oven if it’s cold out.

Once the doughs are doubled in size, prepare a large rectangular baking tray and line it with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.

Tip the individual doughs out onto a clean and floured surface, keeping them separate. Knock the air out of each one gently and begin shaping Totoro!

Rip two small pieces off of the grey dough for his ears and set aside while you shape his body.

To shape his body simply roll the dough out with a rolling pin and stretch it gently to get the long rounded shape. Place it on the baking tray you prepared earlier, making sure the tray is portrait so that the entire length of his body is supported by the tray.

Section off his arms by ripping some dough on each side slightly away from the body and rounding them off before pushing them back towards his body. Shape his feet with slight points.

Shape his ears like thin arrow heads and place the ends under his head, pinching the dough together to secure them.

Poke a finger into the centre of his belly and begin shaping a round hole – stretching the dough out with your fingers. Make this as large as possible and adjust the rest of him to accommodate the belly dough.

Place the belly dough into the gap. It doesn’t matter if the dough spills over the gap – Totoro is mostly belly anyway!

After 30 minutes, bake the bread for 30 minutes. The colour will change to a brown shade but that is normal – the inside will be grey and cream as per the doughs! Tap on the bread, especially the bottom, to check you hear a hollow sound. Then you’ll know it’s baked through.

Leave to cool on the tray for 10 or so minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once completely cool, you can decorate.

Mix together the royal icing sugar and water until you have a very thick consistency.

Pour the icing mix over the centre of his belly and use a cocktail stick or small spoon to push it gently to the edges. Leave a gap around the edge as the icing will likely naturally run down itself.

If any icing pours over the edges and onto the body, gently clean away with a damp piece of kitchen towel/paper. The icing will be thin over his belly – this is part of the reason why this dough had no food colouring added to it. This part can be messy so be patient and be kind to yourself!

While the icing is setting on his belly, cut out your fondant features. Use any leftover icing mix as glue to attach his eyes and nose to the bread. Paint the pupils and nostrils with black food colouring. I used the end of a chopstick to do this.

Very gently press the fondant belly pattern pieces (9 of them) into the icing on the belly of your bread – 4 on the top and 5 below them.

Push Pocky (or whatever you are using) into the sides of the face for his whiskers: 3 on each side. Push in the biscuit side first, right up until the chocolate starts.

Smile at your Totoro bread creation!