Monday 10 November 2014

Tips and tricks for Building a Barbie Cake

After my first barbie cake experience, I have learned a lot of things about cake decorating. I thought building Barbie cakes is a piece of cake (no pun intended). I mean, hey I can always bake the cake, build, stick the barbie in then frost away. Easy peasy, right? Not!!! To be honest, it is not easy especially for those who are starting cake decorating. Luckily, the cake was meant as a gift. The parents are thankful for the cake. I charge it to experience. I am thankful for them giving me the opportunity to make it.

So my take on this project are as follows

  1. Barbie legs are super duper long. You need to make at least 3 batches of 1.5" to 2" high cakes to fully make up the gown. That is total of 5-6 cakes. I used two x 6" cakes and four 8" cakes. Next time, I will use a two x 6" cake, two x 8" cake and one/two 10" cake.
  2. Choose the cake that is dense and easy to carve. White cake or moist chocolate cakes do the trick.
  3. To stack a 5-6 piece cake, it requires at least 3 dowels. This will prevent your tall barbie cake to tip over. I used straws to dowel and having barbie stick in the middle of the cake make it a center dowel.
  4. Use frosting that is durable enough to hold the cake together and keeping your piped decorations from falling. I made the mistake of crumb coating and thinly ice with swiss meringue and use american buttercream rosettes for final frosting. Big mistake! American buttercream slid off the moment I boarded the taxi. By the time I got to the venue, half of Barbie's gown has slid off. I suppose American butter cream is too heavy for my supposedly humid ready swiss meringue.
  5. Carve Barbie's ball gown cake on a particular angle to prevent the rest of the icing to slide off.
  6. Barbie's corset can be done using fondant. This was the best part of making it. Perhaps next time I will do an all fondant barbie next time. Luster dust is L-O-V-E!
  7. Don't expect the taxi to slow down for you. They do not know how to break.
  8. Bring your decoration kit when you deliver to fix your cake. Fortunately, I brought my icing bag with 2D tip with me. I used up all the plastic spoons and paper napkins I can find to scoop up the cake, clean up the mess and repipe the gown. Luckily, the design is simple enough and using a single color. I will die if it were an ombre cake.....

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