The Castle Cake that keeps on giving...

I have made a few of these cakes to where I now have them down to science!  The color for this was was to be Barbie Purple (or as the birthday girl described it, pink-purple).  Neither of the photos I took captured the color just right (flash and low light) but you get the general idea.
The shoes here were the color I was going for:


Yes, they are amazing shoes and the price is $129.  I looked them up.  Fabulous shoes.
Here's with the flash:

And here's without the flash in my low light house:

It was a pretty fun and easy cake and I loved making it!

A Different Take on a Castle Cake

Well good Tuesday to you all!  I didn't get much of a chance to take a good picture of this cake, so I took it while I was in the car, on the way to deliver it.  It's for a little girl's birthday party, and she loves Sleeping Beauty!  The figurine I bought had on a BLUE dress, and as everyone knows, the dress is supposed to be PINK!  So I covered the dress in gumpaste (tedious work, I tell you), let it dry, then painted it pink.  Baking the cakes was a challenge.  SIX cakes worth of ingredients got wasted because I got cheap with the cocoa (didn't go Hershey's like I usually do, I went store brand).  UGH!  That was a very irritating night, let me tell you!  The cakes baked up rubbery.  It was very very sad!
I made another castle cake a little while back, and I haven't been able to get in touch with the client to get the hardware back, so I bought a partial set off Craigslist so I could mold some gumpaste to make the towers.  It was a long process, as I had to wrap the gumpaste around the mold, let it dry, then remove and do it again.  I made two extra just in case of breakage (something I've learned full well to do!).  After they were dry, I painted them lightly with gumpaste glue and sprinkled them with sprinkles.  The piping was done with tube #17 in a rope pattern.  The stars were made out of gumpaste and sprinkled with edible shimmer dust.  The ones sticking up from the towers were two stars, glued together around wire and stuck in the tops of the gumpaste towers.
Happy Birthday, Princess Veda!

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!

Princess Castle Cake

Okay, talk about a rush job!  For some reason, I got it into my head that, because of the snow, Doll Baby's party was going to be postponed...and I neglected to make her cake!  Then yesterday at 3pm I got an email from my Mother In Law, affirming that the party is still on!  So, I started baking like crazy.  By midnight, I had a cake.  Granted, by the end I was exhausted and the turrets could have been smoothed better, but overall, I am pleased with the outcome.  My good ol' hubby took care of Stinkie the whole time!  (Rousing round of applause for my husband!)
This cake is made with the castle setup from Wilton.  I am less than pleased with the directions on the package and the fact that you are supposed to attach 1/4" dowels to the bottom of these heavy tower pieces with frosting.  Yeah, that didn't work.  I shoved the towers into the cake where possible and frosted the heck out of the ones that are set on the cake board.  Wilton's instructions stated to place all the towers, THEN add the gumpaste flowers and decorate.  After trying to put leaves on the top towers while avoiding the other standing towers, I gave up on the directions and built as I went.  There are something like 250 gumpaste flowers on this cake, and more than 700 piped leaves.

There are a few things I will do differently next time.  I will cover the turrets with fondant (buttercream was a PAIN in the rear).  The set comes with a pattern for cutting it.  The bottom layer needs to be tall enough for the door, which stood almost 1/2" above the top of that layer.  The bottom layer is about 4.5" tall...so I guess it's a three layer cake.  I had to draw on the door.  Also, there is a pointy roof thing that was too deep to fit in the 2" space left around the top tier.  I think I will not center the cake in order to leave enough room.
I had a pain of a time baking the cakes.  I used my regular recipe.  6c of batter in the 10" pan, 2c of batter in the 6" pan.  It took an hour for the 10" cake to bake!  It ended up rather overcooked on the outside and undercooked in the middle!  I must get myself one of those core heat distributer things.
It was an experience and I did enjoy it.  But soon I need to make another cake, a very special cake for my very special Husband!  His birthday is the 9th!