Gemma’s Doll Cake

GemGem turned 5 and her mommy and daddy hosted the whole family of us at a picnic party for her  (and her big-brother, Gavin) on Memorial Day evening.  Stephanie (www.maydae.com) took this photo.

The doll cake.

Some church lady taaught my mom to make the good, old-fashioned doll cake (or “barbie-doll cake”) the year I was turning 13.  I hadn’t played with Barbies since I was 4, but my mom made me one anyway.  I did not have fond feelings about them.

But Jovan asked for one in 2007 before she even had daughters and so I made it and discovered it was fun and easy.  Then, for Guini’s 4th birthday in 2009, I made her a Cinderella cake.  And it was a hit and I liked them more.

Gemma just turned 5 and has that dazzling head full of long, red, curly hair (which she always wants me to straighten, noooooo!).  And as it happens, Disney’s Pixar is about to release a movie called, Brave, and the heroine is a gorgeous redhead named Merida.  Voila – a cake that looks like the birthday girl!

Here is how it went:

  • 9″ pan, 8″ pan, 6″ pan and a 6″ stainless steel bowl for the top of the skirt of the dress.
  • 2 Confetti cakes mixes
  • 2 containers of strawberry fluff icing for filling
  • a batch of buttercream and some food coloring

Her mommy told me Gemma wanted a very colorful princess cake.  She is a very colorful princess, so that seemed right.

Baked cake.  Stacked and filled cakes on a cake stand.  Wrapped the Merida-doll in painter’s tape (so she wouldn’t be totally naked when we cut the cake (from an earlier lesson learned).  Used a serrated knife to create ball-gown shape.  Crumb-coated with some of the pre-made strawberry icing.  Divided up the buttercream into small batches.  Used a “leaf tip” to cover the whole doll in ruffles and then just used various colors and tips and started “making colorful.”

I suppose it would be good to start with a plan.  But just doing whatever is so much more fun.

           

Plus knowing Gemma will just love it.  And it looks like her!  That is nice.

Amelie is always first in line to offer to take a swipe of the icing for us.

Steph took this last shot, which I LOVE.  It was breezy and getting the candles lit and having them stay lit was challenging and I love how every girl (regardless of age) there was full of anticipation.

That is the cake for this birthday!

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