Cake Decorating Ideas

If your looking for a special birthday cake for your little fairy princess, I think I have a great idea for you. It’s a princess cake! And as you’ll see, the cake forms a beautiful gown over a doll. Let’s get started.

We’re going to need three, eight inch round cakes, and one cake that we’ve baked in an oven proof glass bowl, like this. Now let’s start cutting. I’ve already cut the dome off one cake and converted it onto our cake platter. I’m going to cut the dome off of this one using a serrated knife. Set this aside. Now, I’m going to cut this one in half also.

Rotate the cake as you go instead of cutting straight through. One tip is to chill your cakes in the freezer before you cut them. This will reduce the crumbs. What I’m going to do now is cut a small circle in the center of each cake. This way we can insert the doll later.

Princess Doll Birthday Cake Video

You can use either a small, serrated knife or you can also use decorative pastry cutters. Cut it right in the middle. One trick to keep a nice, clean edge on your decorating surface is to take pieces of parchment paper and tuck them under the edge of the cake.

I tinted our frosting pink just using food coloring you find in the grocery store. I’m going to take a nice size dollop and place it right on. Then I’m going to take my off set spatula and spread it evenly over the entire surface. Then we take another cake and invert it right on top. Try to keep them as centered as possible. And then the top.

Okay, now it’s time to do a crumb coat. A crumb coat is basically just a thin layer of frosting that covers the entire cake and it seals in the crumbs so that your final coat looks nice and clean. It looks like this one is completely covered. SO I’m going to go ahead and show you a nice trick.

You can actually keep spreading the frosting with your off set spatula, but a nice way to get it really smooth is to just use a piece of paper. Cut the paper like this, curve it to the side of the cake and pull it straight up. You get a nice, smooth edge, continue around the entire cake.

Okay, the sides look really smooth. I’m just going to go ahead and smooth the inside also. It doesn’t matter how that’s going to look because that’s going to get filled in later. And now that I’ve finished my crumb coat I’m going to remove the pieces of parchment paper.

Just slide them right out. If there is still a little bit of a messing edge, just come back with your off set spatula and smooth it over. Now that our crumb coat is done, I’m going to set it in the freezer to set up before we finish frosting it.

It’s time to do our final coat. And for this one we’ve placed it on a really nice platter to serve it to match. Take a nice sized dollop on top and start spreading it on. You can actually turn a pedestal like this to make it easier to frost the cake.

Now you have a few choices. You can go ahead and make it smooth again with that same technique we did with the crumb coat and the paper or you can give it a little texture. You can do lines up and down.

I think I’m going to give it some little swirls. You can just take your spatula, press it in to the frosting and spin it, and lift up. It sort of looks like billowing fabric. There is really no pattern to this, it’s all random movements.

Now that we’re done frosting the cake, it’s time to insert the doll. We’ve take a fashion doll and just wrapped it in some plastic wrap. This will protect the clothing so it doesn’t get any frosting on it. I have one ready and we’re just going to stick her right in there. The we’re just to cover with a little bit more frosting to cover that hole.

If you fashion doll has long hair, you may consider wrapping it in plastic wrap as well so it doesn’t get frosting on it.

The next step is we’re going to pipe a decorative pattern on the bodice using the frosting. Always squeeze a little bit of the frosting into the bowl before hand in case there’s any air pockets. Squeeze and hold in place and then pull out as you release pressure and you’ll get a nice little rosette or star. Continue around the entire bodice. I’m going to put some straps over her shoulders.

Now we can add some candy highlights. I have these little stars which will be perfect for a fairy princess. You can put them in little clusters of three. I’m going to put one that’s a little bit bigger right on her bodice. I think I’ll put some little stars right next to it.

And now, for the crowning touch you can make a wand and a hat for the fairy princess. I love to use doll so the birthday girl can keep it as a special memory.