Got a girl's birthday party coming up? I love to make the Princess Doll Cakes, absolutely perfect for any party, but particularly for a princess party. It's so fun to watch this cake come to life.

This party cake is special because very few doll cakes are made with from butter cream or decorator icing; most of them are created with rolled fondant, which does not have the best flavor, so I decided to create a Princess Doll Cake decorated almost entirely with butter cream decorator icing. You can easily make this cake yourself, even if you've never decorated a cake before.

Ingredients

• 2 boxes cake mix (and accompanying ingredients)
• Wilton Wonder Mold (or any oven-proof large batter bowl)
• 1 doll pick, or Barbie-sized fashion doll
• red or pink food coloring
• 3 cups decorator icing
• scrap piece pink cardstock
• 4 - 5 stick-on gems
• toothpick

• 12" round cake board
• cake foil
• Wilton #104 decorator tip (or similar)
• Wilton #4 decorator piping tip (or similar)
• small, round, pearlescent cake decors
• paper towel
• 1 decorator bag

Instructions

1. 

   Assemble the Wilton Wonder Mold according to the package directions, or if using a round oven-proof baking bowl, set it out.

2. Mix up your cake batter according to the package or recipe instructions, and pour 2/3 of the cake batter (or equivalent) into the mold. Bake for about 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

3. While your cake is baking, cover a 12" round cake board with cake foil and set it aside.

4. Use your fod coloring to color your decorator icing pink (or you can make it another color—whatever color the birthday girl chooses!)

5. Once your cake is baked, and cooled, trim the bottom (the wide end) of the cake with a bread knife to make an even surface. Leave the wide side of the cake face-up.

6. 

   Put a dollop of icing on your covered cake board, and spread it around.

7. 

   Carefully place the board, icing side down, on top of the wide side of the cake. Then, very gently flip the whole thing over. Now, your cake is on the board and ready to decorate

8. 

   Ice the cake with a thin layer of icing to seal in the crumbs, set it aside for several minutes to dry.

9. 

   While the first layer of icing is drying, ice the doll's body with a thick layer of the pink decorator icing. Don't worry if it's not smooth, you'll smooth it later. Set the doll aside to dry in a cup or stick the pick into a chunk of Styrofoam if you have one.

10. Ice your cake with a second layer of pink decorator icing. Try to get the icing as smooth as possible, but don't fuss over it. Set the iced cake aside to dry for a few minutes.

11. Once there is a dry crust on the icing (both on the cake and the doll), use a new piece of paper towel to smooth out the cracks and bumps in the icing. Gently use your fingers to smooth the paper towel across the top of the icing. You may have to repeat the process a couple times to smooth out most of the wrinkles.

    If you want to be really advanced, once the icing is smooth, use the paper towel to create a small pattern in the icing. Gently push the towel onto the icing, and the pattern can give the icing a little interest, and make it look like fabric.

12. 

    Once the icing is fairly smooth, insert the doll pick into the top of the cake.

13. Use a fine piping tip (like Wilton #4) to pipe around the edges of the doll's neck, and sleeve.

14. 

    Insert small edible cake décor beads into the piping around the neckline and arms to look like beads on the dress.

15. Using your remaining icing, add a little more food coloring to make the remaining icing a little darker.

16. 

    Fill a pastry bag with the darker icing and attach a Wilton # 104 (or similar) tip. Pipe a ruffle around the bottom of the dress. Make the ruffle by moving your hand back and forth while squeezing the icing through the tip. The wide end of the tip should be on the bottom. Push back a little then pull forward to get the individual ruffles all the way around the base of the cake. Keep the tip at the same angle as the base of the dress.

17. 

    Cover the top of the ruffle by piping a string of icing all the way around where the top of the ruffle meets the dress, with the Wilton #4 (or similar) piping tip.

18. 

    Insert edible beads into the piping all the way around into the thin stripe of icing, about ¼-inch apart. If you have tweezers you use only for food, you can use them to put the beads in place.

19. 

    Make the dolls tiara with a small piece of card stock, and some stick on jewels. Cut the strip to about 3/8-inch wide by 3-inches long, with a small triangle on the top center.

20. 

    Using double sided tape, tape the tiara in place on the doll's head. You can also add a magic wand in the dolls hand. Use a small star sticker and a toothpick to make the wand. Glue the wand to her hand with a small dot of glue, or tape it with double sided tape.

Tips

Use the remaining 1/3 of th ecake batter to make some Princess Cupcakes to go with the cake.