Yes, I know. Commercialism has struck my 4 year old!!! But, anyway...here's the typically beautiful "bake cake in dome pan, frost lightly, tint and roll out fondant, slap on cake, stick Cinderella Barbie in the top" cake that I made this morning for her party today.
It was fun. Her eyes lit up. Gave me a thousand kisses. Maybe in a couple of years from now she'll want MUCH more interesting themes for her cakes!!! Looking forward to that!
Made little ones for the girls to decorate with sugars, strawberry malted milk balls and sprinkles.
Here's my daughter's. Notice how everything is all perfectly arranged and everything? She's 4 and she already shows signs of having my OCD gene!
Tips so you don't have to read all the pages:
If you have played with clay or playdough, you can work with store-bought fondant. There are lots of tutorials on the internet. Just search for 'rolling fondant' or look in any modern cake decorating book.
If you don't have one of the dome cake pans (Wilton), then you can use a tall glass mixing bowl, so I've been told.
Bend the very flexible Cinderella Barbie's legs at the knees and wrap her legs in plastic wrap to keep them held tightly together.
Wrap the dress so it won't get dirty.
I removed one slipper to put on my dd's cupcake...since the real Cinderella lost her slipper!
I used cupcakes because the doll cake isn't very large. I also wanted some place to stick the birthday candle.
It's easier than you think!!! But, I take the fondant off before cutting the cake. It doesn't really taste very good.
The fondant is not hard to color. I used the Wilton paste dyes, since water is the enemy of fondant. Start out with a little and add gradually...I used about three 'blobs on the end of a toothpick' worth of dye for the whole package of fondant. And, I have half of the fondant left over after making her skirt! You knead it just like dough. It will take a good five minutes of kneading to get the color incorporated. Make sure you have plenty of cornstarch around for the coloring and rolling. Powder your hands and work surface frequently or it will start to stick. I let my fondant sit overnight after I colored it. It tends to darken up just a shade when it sits, so keep that in mind.
Either the doll must have really flexible legs, unless you plan on adding a two-layer cake underneath the dome cake and keeping the doll's legs straight, since mine would not have fit unless I strapped her legs back at the knees, or you can use a Wilton cake doll made for this kind of cake, or pop the legs off of a cheaper doll. (Modern Barbie brand legs will not come off!) I also made the hole too large. I would not do that next time around. Keep it a little on the too-small side so that it's more snug against her waist when you put her into the hole.
I found that the Wilton domed cake pan cake isn't tall enough to stick in her whole bottom half. I used 6.5 cups of cake mix, even though it said that I'd just need 6. I would go with 7 cups next time, since I still had to make one 10" diameter round cake for the bottom. I don't know exactly how much more room I would have needed for it to have been enough room for her feet and all without bending her legs. I tried to pop off her legs at the hip joint at first, like you could with the old Barbies or the cheapies. Boy, they sure have modified them since I played with my friend's dolls as a kid! Those legs aren't coming off! If you wanted to use the whole Barbie without bending her legs or going Texas Chainsaw Massacre on her, I'd say you would have to make two extra round layers for the bottom. It would then take more like the whole package of fondant to make the skirt.
For the pink cupcakes:
I had left-over strawberry cake batter from the two mixes I used for the doll cake, so I used my mini muffin tin with candy cups as liners to make mini cupcakes. Then I got the Betty Crocker 'Whipped' strawberry frosting and put it into a piping bag with a large round decorator's tip on it. I went around the outside first and spiraled upwards toward the middle, ending with a nice pointy peak in the center.
And there you have it!
RM
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I would file them down to smooth them IF it were my wheel, but it's not. I don't think she would want to replace them, since they're part of the whole 'antiqueness' of the wheel.
