Princess Party

I'm clearly a few months behind in some of my planned posts. Back in November, we celebrated my daughter's fourth birthday. This year, her request for a theme was to have a Princess Party. I thought that this sounded like a wonderful theme. For during the party entertainment, I picked up some dresses and tutus, as well as some Prince crowns and capes from MyPrincessPartytoGo.com. I figured the kids could dress up during the party and then have an outfit to take home with them after the party. The cake was not a hard decision for me, I always thought it would be fun to make one of those princess doll cakes, and that is what I set out to do.

I had a vision in my head of what the cake would look like. I was a little uncertain on exactly how I would decorate the cake. I finally decided that fondant would be a great way to get a flowy looking ball gown for the princess cake.

I was able to find a ballerina Barbie doll, that had a bodice that was painted on. I figured that not having to make a top would make decorating the cake easier. Fortunately, there was one available in purple - my daughter's favorite color and the planned color for our Princess Doll Cake.

I started by making two cake mixes. I made one mix in an oven proof glass bowl and the other one in two 9" round cake pans. Because I prefer to offer both chocolate and white (or yellow) cake, I made one of each. After baking the cakes and allowing them to cool. I used a small glass to cut a round hole in the middle of each of the layers - this would be where I could place the doll when I was done decorating. Then, using a thin layer of frosting (I make a homemade butter cream), I stacked the cakes. Then, I frosted the cake with a thin layer of frosting. I took my marshmallow fondant from the refrigerator and kneaded in purple frosting color. (It's a bit of an arm workout to knead it in to refrigerated fondant and get an even color). I rolled it into a rectangle of sorts.

I removed the skirt from the ballerina and wrapped her lower body in plastic wrap, to keep her from getting covered in frosting. I dropped a spoonful of frosting into the bottom of the hole in the center of the cake, to hold the doll up. Then, I lifted my fondant and draped it around the cake. To finish the edges, I piped some purple frosting along the top edge and then, to accent the dress, created a bunch of small purple flowers on her dress.

Here was the result:

When my daughter saw her cake for the first time, her eyes just lit up. It was wonderful.

I enjoy making cakes for my kids - the best part is seeing their reaction when they see the cake.

You can see the cakes that I have made over the years here:

Blue's Clues
Airplane
Cars - Lightnin' McQueen cake
Space - Solar System cake
Elephants
Wiggles - Big Red Car cake
Abby Caddaby - Princess Wand cake
Star Wars - Dueling Light Sabers cake
Phineas & Ferb

This post shared at Works for Me Wednesday and the Ultimate Recipe Swap Birthday Cake Roundup.