Princess Castle Cake

Hi cakebakers!


My latest cake creation was for my niece's 3rd birthday. She is a Disney princess fan and looks all things princessy so I decided to make her a Disney princess cake. As usual I stated my planning by browsing the Internet looking at all different types of Disney princess cakes and some of them are absolutely stunning! As an amateur cake baker I didn't want to set my standards too high and be disappointed with how the cake would turn out so I tried to keep it as simple as I could!

This was the first two tier cake I made and to be honest I wasn't sure how it would turn out and if I would do it right. I baked a 9 inch cake and a 6 inch cake... both vanilla sponge cakes. I sandwiched both with vanilla butter cream and raspberry jam and crumb coated them. For each cake I set them on cake boards the same size as the sponges, so a 9 inch board and a 6 inch board, a nice and thin board so that they wouldn't be seen when put on the larger cake board.

Whilst the cakes were crumb coated I worked on some of the other details for the cake including the turrets. For the turrets I used cardboard tubes... like those you find when you finish a roll of toilet paper or kitchen towels... Make sure they are all the same size/width. I used the smaller type as my castle cake wasn't going to be massive, kitchen roll tubes would be great for a larger cake.

 

I rolled out pale pink sugarpaste and used a brick embosser ( one of my fave sugarpaste tools) and made an imprint into my sugarpaste. I then wrapped the sugarpaste around a tube and trimmed it to size. To seal the edges I gently pressed the edges together using my fingers. To make the points on the turrets I used regular ice cream cones which are available in every supermarket. I chose the cones with the pointed bottom, the flat bottom cones could also be used for a different look.

 

I coated my cones in baby pink butter cream and then coated the cones in edible pink glitter. I then sealed the cones onto the turrets using edible glue. They then looked like this....

 

 

I set the turrets aside and began to ice the 9 inch cake with baby pink sugarpaste. Once this was done I placed the 6 inch cake on top and used an edible pen to mark the four corners of the where the 6 inch cake was going to sit. I did this so that I could see where I needed to put dowels into the 9 inch cake. Dowels are inserted into cakes with 2 or more layers to support the bottom layer so that the top layer does not sink into the bottom layer.

 

Dowels come in different types, sizes etc.... I will blog about them in more detail another time (note to self). I used plastic dowels for this cake, bought from a local cake shop and trimmed them to size. I done this by inserting them into the cake at the points I marked and again using my edible pen, marking on the dowels the point where the dowels came out of the cake. I trimmed off the excess dowel with some strong clippers I borrowed from my dad's trusty tool box! When putting dowels in a cake, they need to be the same height as the cake, so they can just about be seen poking out of it, if you make them too high or uneven, the second layer will not sit nicely on top. I forgot to take a picture of my first layer with the dowels in but it should look something like this....
If you are inserting dowels into a cake for someone, make sure you let them know there are internal structures in the cake... just in case they don't realise and think they are edible and crack a tooth on them!


Once I had placed the dowels in the 9 inch cake, I went on to ice the 6 inch cake. I then placed the 6 inch cake on top of the 9inch cake, making sure it was centred and aligned with the inserted dowels.

I then placed my four prepared turrets at the four corners of the cake and secured them in place with edible glue.

I added a few finishing touches to the cake by adding some classic green ivy, usually found on princess castles! and some flowers.

I decided to buy a set of Disney princess figures to put on this cake so that my niece had a little keepsake afterwards that she could play with and I placed them around the cake.

And so you have it.... A princess castle fit for any little princess...

If I were to make the cake again I think I would add a few extra details on it like windows on the turrets and maybe an extra layer which has a top window and give more detail to the drawbridge at the front...

For a first attempt though... I was happy with it... Practise makes perfect as they say!

xoxo