There are many things that make birthdays special: friends, family, presents, food… the list goes on. My favorite part of a birthday is the cake. I’m not sure what the exact reason is. It may be because it’s the centerpiece of a celebration or because it foreshadows the inevitable sweet ending of a party or simply because I love cake.
I did not have many birthday parties when I was little, but I do remember seeing many beautiful cakes at American bakeries wishing I would have one for my birthday. I always ended up getting a Korean cake. By Korean cake, I mean a simple sponge cake filled with whipped cream and fruit and a simple decoration on top. (I have to say, Korean bakeries have stepped up their decorating game since I was a little kid.) Many a day did I wish for the sugary sweet American buttercream counterpart but it just didn’t happen. So that’s why when it’s someone’s birthday I try to make it special the only way I know how, with cake.
Andy’s niece LOVES Sofia the First, along with Minnie Mouse and Max & Ruby. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at doll cakes so the present was twofold: the cake and the doll in one.
If you’ve never made doll cakes before, I’ll tell you that it’s definitely more time consuming than a layer cake but the reaction you get makes it worth the trouble. When we walked in the door, the first thing she screamed was “Sofia!!” and asked to hold it thinking it was a real doll. We were successful keeping her hands off until the end when the urge was too great and she made a grab for it. 🙂
Sophia the First Doll Cake
You will need:
Purple Fondant
White Fondant
White Buttercream
White Sugar Pearls
4 layers of 6” round cake
Purple Food Marker
Isomalt (optional)
Small Gem Mold (optional)
Instructions:
- Cut out holes in the cake layers so that it would fit your doll. I used this doll.
- Prep your doll by tying its hair up, taking off the dress, and wrapping the doll with plastic wrap.
- Roll out a piece of purple fondant and drape around the doll adhering it with either a very thin layer of buttercream or water. (As shown above.)
- Frost and layer the cake layers and place your doll inside.
- Mold the cake into a dress shape by cutting it along the top in a rounded shape.
- Frost the cake smoothly up to below the waist of the doll. (As shown above.)
- Roll out a piece of white fondant and cut out a 2-3 in. strip. Drape it around the bottom of the dress to form the underskirt of the dress. (As shown above.)
- Roll out a piece of purple fondant and cut out a ¼ in. strip. Adhere the purple strip over the white fondant with either buttercream or water to form the stripe around the underskirt. (As shown above.)
- Roll out a large piece of purple fondant (about 10 in. in height) and cut out scalloped shapes along the bottom. Drape right below the waist of the doll connecting the two ends together in the back. (As shown above.)
- Roll out two more pieces of fondant in a semi-circle shape and drape around each side of the doll to create the top layer of her dress. (As shown above.)
- Roll and cut a thin ribbon of fondant and wrap around the waist to meld the top and bottom together.
- With the purple marker, draw two lines and a loop design on the front of her dress. (As shown above.)
- Adhere pearls along the neckline and the purple stripes. (As shown above.)
- Adhere pearls along the top layer of the dress. (As shown above.)
- Optional: If you have time, you can continue the pearl all across the back of the dress. I did not so I opted to continue it with a white ribbon made of white fondant.
- Adhere pearls all along the top and bottom skirt of the dress
- For the circular pattern along the bottom of the dress you can either:
- Cut out the pattern with the fondant and adhere it.
- Make white teardrop jewels with a small gem mold with either sugar or isomalt. This gives it an interesting 3D effect to the dress. You can cut out the triangular shapes with fondant and adhere it.
- If you have time, you can fancy the dress up in the back with more pearls and sugar jewels. (As shown above.)
- Optional: You can also paint the crown with silver paint and bling it out with little purple gems like I did above. It makes the cake look a little more expensive and detailed. (As shown above.)
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