There was never a question about which dress to do, but the question was HOW to do it! It’s a slinky little number, really no room for cake, so of course the skirt needed to be much fuller so there was something to eat. BUT to give the illusion of slinkiness (is that a word) I went as A line as I could with one deep carved “ripple” to give the illusion of the slit.
Start with a 12 inch Elsa doll (sorry I didn’t have one when I started working on the cakes – they are HARD to find), a Wonder Mold cake and a second cake, an 8 inch round. The wonder mold cake by itself isn’t tall enough for the dolls legs. My chocolate cake is very DENSE, which is best for carving, but it tends to shrink a bit too, making it even SHORTER. So the extra height is necessary (unless you tear the dolls legs off)
- to keep their legs together do they don’t separate while going into the cake
- keep the cake food safe, and the doll clean.
Next up the under shirt. On Elsa it’s sheer, but I can’t really create sheer fondant. So I used a REALLY light blue, almost white and rolled it SUPER thin with my pasta roller. To get it this thin it needs to be stronger than just fondant so I mix fondant and gumpaste together.
Paint the back with clear vanilla (or vodka, it’s cheaper) this makes it tacky so it will stick to the doll. Make sure the arms are where you want them, then lay it over the dolls front, neck and arms. Cut away what you don’t need and wrap the gumpaste/fondant around the arms, cutting where they meet on the underside. And wrap it around her front and back. Cut a clean shoulder line around.
I wish I had done one other layer between the two blues to extend the ombre look a bit more.
Next up the addition of luster dust. This is what’s going to give the overall dress they shiny, icy look. I used a dark blue along the bottom to help with the ombre effect and Antique Silk all over. If you just brush it on dry it will add a bit of shine, if you keep brushing it it will get glossy and smooth.
Now for the CAPE! I debated rolling out gumpaste super thin like the sleeves, but thought it would still look to heavy. I thought about not using anything edible, like using netting and adding fondant snowflakes… BUT I like adding only edible materials. So I decided to try edible wafer paper.
It’s not sheer but it’s super thin. Anyway, you can see it has a dull side and a glossy side. Do NOT get the glossy side wet, it will shrivel badly, you want to work with the rough/dull side. Cut it in the shape you want first, then add water to just the top. I added clear vanilla/vodka to the back of the dress to make it tacky/sticky.
now to attach it! Try not to rip it (buy extra sheets, I did use 2, a practice one and a final one. You can see it did rip a bit… But I the end I was pleased.
Here's Another Tutorial
Tutorial 2 - Elsa Doll Cake Tutorial
I made this Elsa doll cake for my niece who absolutely loves Frozen. I was looking to replicate the scene where she sings "Let it Go" so I knew that the traditional doll cake wasn't going to work, which is why I decided to try this peeking-leg-style cake. I found that it was a pretty forgiving design, since the fondant is layered.
A couple of days prior to making the cake, I made the top part of Elsa's dress so that it would have time to harden before I had to handle it. I started by taping her legs in the position that I wanted them (one foot in front of the other) so that she wouldn't move while the top part of the dress was drying. To make the top part of her dress, I rolled out some dark teal fondant and cut one side with a pizza cutter so that it had a straight edge. One thing that isn't really noticeable in the final pictures of this cake is that there are actually two different shades of teal in this dress - dark teal for the top/middle, and light teal for the middle/bottom.
Then I brushed the top half of her body with a little bit of water and wrapped the fondant around her with the straight edge up and the uneven edge down. I used a sharp knife to cut away the excess in the back where it overlapped, and then I cut the uneven edge off of the bottom. I used my thumb to smooth out the seam as best as I could. Then I cut a small, rounded "V" in the front of her dress on her chest. The good news is that she has arms so she was able hold herself up while the top of her dress dried. :-)
I used my clay extruder to make a thin strip of light teal fondant to go around the top edge of the dress and attached it with a little bit of water.
The other piece that I made in advance was the cake board. I decided that I wanted to decorate this cake directly on the cake board, which would have been difficult if I had used a fondant-covered cake board. So instead of covering my cake board with fondant, I stacked three white 12-inch cardboard cake circles and covered them with a layer of sheer, sparkly teal fabric. Then I glued ribbon around the edge and covered the whole board with clear contact paper. This made the board really easy to clean. (It also worked out really well in the end because my niece asked if she could keep it to use it as a dance floor for her dolls.) :-)
To make the cake, I used the Wilton Doll Pan and an eight-inch round pan. When the layers were cool, I leveled them, filled them with frosting, and stacked them. I ended up cutting the doll pan layer in half (horizontally) so that I could add an extra layer of frosting. Then I cut a notch in the front of the cake where the doll would later stand. I didn't take measurements to see how tall the cake was, but it came up to the middle of the doll's thigh.
I also added a clump of fondant onto the back of the cake so that the dress would have a more gradual flow.
This is the only picture that I took during this stage. I added the middle piece to the back first, then the sides, and then filled in the rest. You can see where I initially added some white ruffles, which I later decided to remove and replace with another strip of teal.
To finish off her dress, I added three shorter dark teal strip around her waist (this helped to cover up the spot where I attached the strips to the back/sides of the dress). The first strip started at her right hip (our left) and wrapped around to below her left hip. The second strip started at her left hip and wrapped around to the back. The last strip started in the back and wrapped around to the front/center (this is another situation where it might just be easier to look at the picture). To finish the cake, I added a few fondant snowflakes, and covered the entire cake with luster dust. I also used a small triangle of dark teal fondant to cover the top of her exposed foot.
Ipoh Bakery's Walking Doll Cakes |
1 comment:
:-) Congratulations on the beautiful cake. Really beautiful and realistic looking.
And thank you for your tutorials, very detailed and with clear, comprehensive pictures.
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