"How did you... make the pink castle cake?"
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This cake is two tiers, 10" and 4" squares.
Each tier is made of vanilla cakes, filled with
whipped vanilla icing, coated in vanilla
buttercream, and decorated with sugar,
chocolates and fondant accents.
Below are photos taken during the process
with my comments. I hope you enjoy!
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Cake Board
Most cakes benefit from a custom cake board. Aside from infinite possibilities to color and shape, it's disposable! You can leave it at the party site with no stress in retrieving a cake plate. Be sure to make the board thicker for heavier cake... otherwise it will buckle when you transport it!
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Templates
Using the cake pans as a guide, I created templates for castle walls to use when cutting out the fondant panels.
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Bake & Cool
After baking, I set the cakes aside to cool. It's important that they cool down before you level, carve, or move them. Otherwise they may break and even crumble.
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Cones
While the cakes were cooling, I made the castle spires. Starting with sugar cones, I rolled them in chocolate and sprinkled with purple sugar. Then I moved the tray to a cool place, allowing the chocolate to set.
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Filling
After leveling the cakes, I filled each layer with pink icing and added sprinkles for extra fun. ;) First time adding sprinkles to the middle - I liked the effect at the party and will do this again for fun cakes in the future.
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Stack
Once I applied the filling, I stacked the other cake for each layer.
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Ice
I stacked the cakes together and applied a thick layer of buttercream. This also helps the fondant panels (castle walls) adhere to the cake.
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Color Fondant
Unless you purchase colored fondant, you will need to apply the desired colors to white. I almost always color my own fondant to get the exact color I'm aiming for. And it's kind of like pulling taffy... just add color and pull and knead and pull and knead...
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Cut-outs
Using my templates, I cut out the needed shapes from rolled fondant. I also used a combination of tools to press into the panels for a bumpy, rock-like look. Better than smooth fondant in this case.
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Walls
I applied the fondant panels to the cake, making sure to press firmly against the buttercream before it set. It acts as a cement and the walls stayed up during transport too.
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Spires
I added the spires to the cake, cementing them down with more buttercream.
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Accents
I used my extruder gun to get fondant I molded into '5'. I also sprinkled the whole cake with oodles of purple sugar and made chocolates to spell out the birthday girl's name.
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Ta-da!
A sparkly castle cake fit for a princess. :) The birthday girl loved it, which was exactly what I was aiming for... so success!
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Piper Cakes