My niece Arabella turned 5 last year and she loves everything Disney! My sister in law asked if I could make her a princess cake for the birthday party after she had seen some pictures of skirt cakes on Pinterest. At first I was a bit nervous to try, but after reading up on the process, I thought I could give it a go!
I had a good research on Pinterest for inspiration and tips and hot-footed it down to Hobbycraft (where I might have ended up buying *quite* a bit more than just a cake skirt tin!). I have linked the tin kit here.
I made a normal plain sponge mixture and baked it in the tin which goes upside down in the oven. I baked the sponge about 10 minutes more than I normally would to ensure it was fully cooked as it's such a deep tin. Once the cake had cooked and cooled, I took it out of the tin and levelled the bottom using a bread knife to ensure it sat flat on the board.
You can purchase special doll's to fit into the top of the cake (click here), but as I wanted specifically a Princess Aurora doll, I ordered one from eBay and my husband got out his saw and chopped off her legs!!! After sticking Aurora into the cake, I then made a big batch of bright pink buttercream icing using a blend of Wilton colouring drops (my favourite colouring brand). I used a large piping nozzle and created swirls all over the skirt - starting from the bottom and working my way up, before placing small edible flowers in the centre of each swirl. I then gave the cake an all-over sparkle with edible lustre spray (click here), which gives it a nice princess-like finish.
Here is a peak inside the cake. I found that it cut up easily into slices for children to take home in a napkin. You can cut the sponge in half and add another layer of buttercream or jam, but this can mean the skirt doesn't look completely smooth and even on the outside and I thought there was enough icing on the top!
The good thing about this cake mould is that once you have mastered one princess, you can mix it up and use a different doll and colour of icing to create different Disney characters. Why not try turquoise for an Elsa doll from Frozen?
Real life Princess Aurora with my nieces!
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