Another Princess Castle Cake

This week went by so quickly.  My son is talking more and more each day and while I have been taking moments to step outside our everyday routine to enjoy the process, it feels like everything is either speeding or crawling by.  Does that make any sense?  No?  Well, I guess I should just stick to the caking of it all, then. :)

I had made a castle cake before for Dollbaby when she turned 4.  She just loved it.  This cake was for a first birthday party!  I did make a 3D crown smash cake, but dang it I forgot to take a picture of it!  Ah well.  Life goes on.  ANYway.  Today I tried out the hot knife technique.  Since it is ridiculously humid here (and hot), my buttercream hasn't been crusting the way I'm used to in order to do the VIVA paper towel smoothing I do.  Thus, I reverted to the hot knife trick.  You just get the frosting on the cake, then dip the spatula in HOT water and smooth.  It's very fast but it takes some getting used to and some practice.  I used that technique on the crown smash, so you don't even get to see the results!  I'm sorry!  Well, anyway, the castle cake was pretty much a repeat of the first time I made it, with a few small (or large, depending on how you look at them) exceptions.  This time I offset the 6" 2nd tier to the back so I could use the steeple roof.  I baked the cakes taller so I could use the provided door (last time my tier was too short and the door was too tall to fit properly, so I just frosted a door on).  I used fondant to cover the turret roofs, which proved much easier for me to do and much easier to transport for the client.
Last time I did this cake, I had such a hard time getting the towers to stay in place.  Last night, I was about to lose my cool when the new plans failed (using gumpaste to hold in place, using melted chocolate to hold them in place.  These just didn't stand up to it).  My INCREDIBLY SMART hubster came up with the brilliant idea to drill holes in the bottom of the towers, just large enough for the dowels I was using to fit through.  IT WORKED!  He is SO great!  He drilled every last tower to make my life easier.  I lurve him.

I worked as I went, placing a tower, decorating around it, then placing another.  I covered the cake board with fondant this time, which I like the effect of.  I used florist's tape around the cake board border to cover the raw edges.  The leaves were made using tip #67 and a bit darker green than the accent.  The bottom of the cake is 2-10" layers of yellow cake and the top is 2-6" layers of chocolate.  SO GOOD!  One problem I had was with the placing of the top towers.  They should have been placed farther apart to take into account the width of the tops.
I think next time I will try out another method of baking and preparing the cakes that I found online and review it for you.  It is a way of baking so you don't have to remove cake from the top of the layers to make it level.  I'll let you know.
I very much enjoyed making this cake after my husband helped me out so dramatically.  THANK YOU SWEETHEART!