Princess Cake

Hello everyone! As Krystal has announced, I will be doing monthly segments teaching all of you how to make your baking creations a little more Disney like. This is meant for the inexperienced/average baker, and is not at an intermediate level. Before each segment I will make sure to include a list of tools that are used, and then ingredients for each part of whatever is being baked.

Let me just say that I take the Julie Child's approach to everything I do: Things are rarely perfect in the baking world (at least that's true if you're not a professional), but never ever make an apology for it. Your time and effort went into that creation, and deserves applause no matter what the result is. Just take the magic wand and banish any inner guilt over imperfections you alone know are there - I know that's something I have to remind myself every time!

With that being said, thank you for joining me on my new, magical, journey and lets get started!

Tools:

3 cookie cutters (shaped as a crown, slipper, and castle)

1 Wilton flower fondant stamp

1 pick

2 bent Wilton spatulas (one with a slight curve, another with a deep curve)

1 shimmer powder

1 box of Wilton multi colored fondant

1 rolling pin

1 cake stand

1 paint brush

1 10in square pan

1 8in square pan

4 princess dolls (found at Party City for $0.99 each)

Cake:

4 Funfetti Cake mixes (cake mix instead of making from scratch chosen to make things a little easier, and more economical)

12 eggs

2 cups oil

4 cups water

Filling:

1 package of cream cheese

1/2 pound of powdered sugar

1 chocolate pudding already mixed

Frosting:

1 1/2 pounds of powdered sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 1/2 cups of shortening

7-8 tablespoons of milk (add more depending on how smooth you want your frosting)

Follow instructions on cake box mix for baking times and temperatures. After it has been baked, and cooled, carefully remove the domed top of the cake. I do this by either using a very sharp butcher knife, or a cake leveler (one can be purchased at Michael's very a relative reasonable price). At this point, place the cakes in the freezer for about 15-30 minutes. Remove from the freezer and make a crumb coat with your frosting (what this basically means, for those who don't know, is that you put a very light coating of frosting all over the cake and then place back in the freezer - this ensures that the crumbs will be frozen behind that coat and will not show up through the final coat of frosting). After at least an hour of freezing, apply filling to layers, stack, and then begin frosting. Once cake is relatively smooth, put back in the freezer and begin working on your fondant pieces.

For the fondant, make sure to have whatever surface you are using completely clean (any little fuzzy or bit of dust will stick to eat, and is very difficult to remove). Start by putting a small dusting of corn starch on your surface and rolling pin, and then roll the fondant out to be about 1/8in thick. Use cookie cutters, just as you would for baking cookies, and place shapes on a plate for dusting. The flowers are a little different, and require a Wilton flower stamp. Simply put your rolled out fondant in the stamp, press both sides together, and gently use a pick to remove (a tooth pick will work). To get the dimensional look on my first layer, I combined the two flowers in the stamp. I simply did this by applying a little bit of water to the larger flower, and placing the smaller one on top: Water is like glue for fondant! Once all shapes have been made, use a paint brush (any will work) to dust on shimmer powder. At this point, even if frosting is not perfectly smooth, apply the shapes to the cake. For mine, I chose to alternate between the crown and slipper for the two layers, and put the flowers directly around the sides (this helps to eliminate rough edges with frosting), and put the castle directly on top: for an extra magical touch, put a heavy coating of shimmer powder on the brush and tap it around the castle. It is now time to add the princesses at each corner, and arrange candles however you'd like. Once done, place back in the freezer, and let stay over night.

** A note on frosting and fondant: Both are very weather/heat sensitive. If the day is hot and humid, try and wait till evening/early morning to do your decorating. If that is absolutely not possible, try decorating in spurts

and then placing cake back in the freezer for a few minutes to keep things from sliding and melting **

Once the cake has sufficiently frozen, remove and use your paint brush to gently smooth out any rough edges. In order to keep your cake really moist, place back in the freezer until 1-2 hours before serving (time depends on heat and humidity). For an extra touch, I piped edges around the layers, which can be done by using left over frosting in a decorators bag (or with a Ziploc bag) and any tip of choice. Once you are ready to serve your cake, remove the top layer from the bottom for easy cutting. Should serve up to 40 princesses and princes, depending on the width of your cake slice.