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.....

Swiss Meringue Butter Cream Tips and Tricks

Update (April 9 2015): Some butters (particularly cheaper brands) have more water content than others, which can cause your SMBC to be less stable in humid weather. I noticed that french butters have less water content compared to cheaper brands. I suggest you experiment with various butter brands and see which one works for you.

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Out of all the frostings I have ever made, this is probably my preferred frosting of choice. It is less sweet because I don't have to dump a lot of icing sugar to get the consistency I wanted. It is cheaper because you can use regular sugar compared to the cost of icing sugar which is almost 3x the cost per kilo.

The key to stable swiss meringue buttercream frosting are as follows:

1. The ratio of the butter against the eggwhite. I use 1 eggwhite from large egg : 1/4 cup of butter : 1/4 cup sugar. Butter is susceptible to melting so I would recommend not to go beyond this measure.
2. Cream of tartar is also added to add stability of the eggwhites.
3. Let the buttercream set on the cake in the fridge overnight.

Below is my recipe for humid stable swiss meringue buttercream frosting. This recipe can frost about 6" cake with flowers or decorate an 8" caramel cake. Add another 1 set of eggwhite/sugar/butter ratio for 8" cake.

This buttercream can be made in batches and keeps well in an airtight container in freezer for a month or in the fridge for 2 weeks. Just put to room temp and beat them again to revive buttercream consistency.

It works well with gel and paste colors though it will yield a slight pastel color due to the yellowness coming from the butter.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting

2 eggwhites from large eggs (at least 55g eggs)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened (consistency of mayonaise)


Simmer water in a saucepan. Put a stainless steel bowl with eggwhites, sugar and cream of tartar on the saucepan (similar to a double broiler) and whisk until sugar is fully dissolved. To check if the sugar is fully dissolved, test a sample of the mixture and rub against your fingers for any sugar grains. For food safety reasons, I whisk until thermometer reach 160F.
Remove your mixing bowl saucepan and beat your eggwhites until stiff stiff peaks and the bowl is cool to touch (this is important.... otherwise your butter will melt and end up in a runny mess). Put beaters on low and add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Then put on medium and watch it like a hawk until mixture is pale and fluffy. Since your butter is soft enought, it will immediately achieve its buttercream consistency in minutes so be careful not to overbeat it.

To troubleshoot SMBC:
Mixture too runny : Put your bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes and try beating again.
Mixture is curdled: Continue beating until you achieve buttercream greatness.

Enjoy and happy frosting!