Sugary, Spicy & Everything Girly: Cinderella's Castle Cake

Audrey wanted a Cinderella Castle cake for her birthday this year. At first, this would sound like an impossible task...but big THANKS to Wilton & Joanns, I found a kit to make it- Wilton's Romantic castle cake set.

As per the kit's instruction, I was supposed to ice the turrets (cones) with royal icing and add sparkles to it and for the rest of the outlines & leaves with more buttercream icing. That would mean piping, icing and more piping! Frankly speaking, I never liked piping, just can't seemed to get the 'feel' of it...I did take the Wilton Decorating 101 class some years ago but I have no recollection of it at all..well, I don't even remember completing the course either...that's probably why I sucked at it.

So, instead of piping, I came up with the idea of using fondant to cover those plastic stands/cones. I have a great fondant recipe that I love. I also used fondant to make the flowers for this castle.

I tinted the fondant with Royal Blue and Sky Blue icing color until I got the Cinderella blue-ish color I wanted. Then I rolled it out really thin and used the precut shapes that came with the kits to make the turrets and wrapped them around the cones. I tried using the Cake Sparkles as per the kit's instruction, problem is that it would probably be great if used on icing..but not on fondant. Well, I opted for granulated sugar instead..I just slightly roll the turrets on a flat sugared surface.

After the turrets were done. Next came the stands. The individual stands for the turrets are pretty flimpsy by itself, esp. with the heavy fondant turrets on the top. The instructions said to put melted candy on the base of turrets. The ones that will be inserted into the cake even required melted candy on the dowel rods.

**Dowel rods are thick wooden sticks inserted into tiered cakes to hold the weight of the top layer cake.**

The cake

You will need 2-10" and 2-6" size cake pan. Bake the cake as per the box's instruction and after they are completed cooled down, brush with syrup water..and then wrap them up individually with plastic wrap, then with foil and a plastic bag to be kept in the freezer until when ready to use.

I remove the cake from the freezer on Thursday night (Party was on Saturday) and let it thawed till the next morning. I start working on the cake when its completedly thawed.

step 1

Use Wilton's tip 5 to pipe buttercream icing around the outer layer of the bottom cake.

Step 2.

Spread strawberry jam filling.

Step 3.

Stack the cake, cut side face down. Press it down firmly but don't break it. :)

Step 4.

Spread buttercream icing all over the cake.

Step 5.

Make an indentation on the bottom cake using the smaller size cake board you are using for the top cake. Then, insert the dowel rods around the inside of the indentation.

Step 6.

Roll out the fondant into a thin layer.

Step 7.

Cover the bottom layer cake with the rolled fondant and smooth it out. Then, trim away excess.

Step 8.

Repeat step 1,2,3,4,6,7 with the top layer cake. You do not need dowel rods for the top layer cake.

Step 9.

Begin stacking the cakes, make sure top layer cake & cake board is sitting on the dowel rods that were previously inserted into the bottom cake. Put some icing on the front of your cake to hold the Main castle roof.

Step 10.

After securing the main roof with icing, place the 4 pillars/turrets as shown. That will determine where your front entrance will be. Insert Main Gate exactly below the main roof.

Step 11.

I used Wilton's tip 67 & Kelly green colored icing to make the leaves. (instructions said to use tip 349). Pipe along the outer circle of both cakes, windows for now.

Step 12.

Placed the fondant flowers on the greens. Pipe Wilton tip 2 Royal Blue & Sky Blue Icing on the outlines of all windows and the main gate.

Step 13.

Pipe some icing along side of the cones and secure them to the turrets. Finish the cake by inserting the rest of the turrets on the cake (Top layer: 1 large, 1 medium and 1 small), (second tier: 2 medium in the front and 1 small and 1 medium at the back), (Bottom tier: 2 small in the front, 2 large on the side).

Pipe Wilton tip 5 round dots around the bottom of each turrets. For the bottom turrets, just finish it with more green icing and decorate with the flowers.