Pretty in Pink

Sweet Princess Cake

Three years old already! Like almost all three year old girls my granddaughter loves the Disney princesses, along with Dora, and Minnie Mouse of course. This year the princesses won out.  Time for a princess theme birthday cake…

I have to admit that I have been remiss in seeing all the new (new, being relative) Disney films. Who knew there were so many princesses out there! In my day we had Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. Their popularity seems to last forever and I bet that’s why Disney decided to add a princess, a year, to increase the marketing. Good for Disney.  We are inundated with princesses and I really don’t like to use copyrighted characters on my cakes (or any other projects I do), you can get those cakes other places. So, I thought I would just go with the feeling of a princess… pink and sparkly.

princess birthday cake

Quilted princess cake with pearls, drapes, pink fondant roses and gum paste heart tiara.

I was only home for a few days, but in that time I had had to get two cortisone shots; one in each hand. So, I wouldn’t be able to do any details for the cake ahead of time. It would have to be simple and quick.

As for the cake I thought I would go with swirled pink raspberry and white, vanilla frosting and pink marshmallow fondant. Since I’m not sure how many people will be at the party so this is a good choice. I make two cakes to do the swirl so it will be a larger cake.

I found a satin ruffled trim at the fabric store and thought that it would work around the bottom of the cake board. I’d quilt and pearl the bottom tier… that’s as far as I got in the planning.

I baked the cakes, making one a white cake with added vanilla pudding and the raspberry cake using raspberry jello for flavor and color. Two-layer 8″ rounds and  two-layer 6″ rounds.

The little kids at the party were going to have different stations to play at; finger painting, drawing, blowing bubbles and play dough. While the cakes were baking I got online and looked up “Homemade play dough”. I tried both the Jello and Koolaid recipes I found on Pinterest. My opinion is that the Koolaid play dough is the winner! I found Koolaid for .10 a packet; add flour, salt, cream of tartar, oil and water and there you have it. It’s a good smelling and quick playdough. I didn’t like the way the Jello recipe needed to be cooked and if not done right, was sticky. I was able to make 4-5 Koolaid recipes while the Jello recipe was cooking.

When running my other errands I went to my sister Karen’s house to have her make the marshmallow fondant.  It was a little too much kneading for my hands just yet. Not to mention the fact that she makes it so fast and seems to know how it will turn out when cool. Since the fondant is better after resting overnight it needed to be made friday.

Home again and time to get the cakes frosted. I had to frost while the layers were still very cold. I noticed that when the cakes came out of the pans the edges were a little fragile. I guess when I baked the cakes and used the wet leveling strips around the pans, they overlapped too much and prevented the cakes from baking evenly.  Lesson learned. I’ll purchase another set and cut them to my pan sizes. I placed the cakes in the refrigerator until the next day.

pink and white princess birthday cake

Princess cake all lit up with candles.

Saturday comes around and I get the fondant on both cakes. Only thing is, it’s in the high 80’s in the middle of October! I would have to refrigerate the cake. I don’t like to do that after putting the fondant on, but sometimes it is necessary. As I worked on quilting and adding the pearls to the bottom tier I came up with the idea to try draping on the top layer. I had enough fondant left. What the heck let’s give it a go…

Figuring out the draping took a little time. How thick? What shape? How many folds? Trial and error is how I did it. After figuring out the shape and size, the three drapes around the tier went smoothly. But what to do where the drapes met? I ended up making rolled fondant roses; quick and easy on the hands. The leaves I did cut out with a cookie cutter and used a veiner for detail.

The cake was all ready to transport. The rest I would figure out and finish once I get to party central (granddaughter’s house).

Making a lot of little balls to go around the bottom of the cake seemed to finish it off nicely. The ruffled trim added a softness to the cake and I liked the way it looked. I decided to add the smaller white balls to the bottom of the top tier. But if I was to do it again, I would probably make them pink also. The tiara was a last minute thing. I wanted a sparkly something, so I made the tiara out of white gum paste and dusted pearl powder over it. When I noticed the dust on the fondant I like the look so ended up dusting powder lightly over the cake.

The day of the party was beautiful for an outdoor party. Still hard to believe it’s the middle of October! The Koolaid play dough was a hit. And just to let you know… it does not dry out like the commercial Playdough does, even when used outside. We were able to pack it all away for another day!

blowing out the candles princess birthday cake.

Our three-year-old princess blowing out the candles on her princess birthday cake.

All went well until the cutting of the cake. I lit the candles, everyone sang Happy Birthday, she blew the candles out, everything was going great. Then Elisabeth did not want me to cut the cake. She leaned in, took the tiara off with her teeth. Not sure where this was going… I took it from her and explained that we could do something with that later. That seemed to be okay. But then she leaned in and took a bite out of the top edge of the cake! I explained that I was going to cut the cake so her friends could have some and she shook her head and said, “No cut, I wanna eat it!”. I said… “How about I take the top tier off and save that for you while sharing the bottom with your guests?” No. That was not good either. After few more tries to get her to understand, her mother took her away to calm her down. I did realize she totally understood; she just didn’t want it that way! I went ahead and cut the cake for the kids and parents and she soon came back, ready to get a piece of her birthday cake.

Wow… It’s tough to be three!

 

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