Today Ella is 3! It seems like the time is flying by! We are having a smaller party with cake and ice cream. So I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she said Barbie. Which got me thinking of the last Barbie cake I made for Ava’s 5th Birthday in August.
Ava and her Barbie cake.
I found a great video on how to make a Barbie Cake. Then went to work. I baked the cakes (from a box mix, shh don’t tell anyone) the day before and froze them so they would be easier to work with. I made 2 round cakes and one cake in my Pyrex glass bowl. The directions said to use 3 round cakes, but I only had 2 pans so my cake was shorter. (Good thing I had a shorter Barbie friend laying around)! If you are using a standard size barbie, make sure you use 3 round cakes…
This cake used a TON of frosting. I love the whipped frosting but was unsure if it would hold up well, so I decided to use the regular buttercream icing. I got mine from the grocery store bakery for around $12. (Frosting is not something I have perfected yet.) I used red food coloring to make the pink frosting from half of my white frosting, and the dark pink frosting from the left over light pink frosting by adding even more red food coloring. See this is super easy…you can do this!
My mom passed on her cake decorating supplies to me since she was done making cakes (or so she thought). I started with a crum coat of white icing. Then froze the cake for about an hour and put on the second coat of frosting. A great tip I learned was to use plain white copy paper cut into 2″ strips to get your frosting perfectly smooth for the base, like you see in the front of the cake.
the swirly frosting on the side
I did another layer of pink frosting for the dress in a kind of loose swirl pattern to resemble flowing fabric. I also added a little 3 star pattern to give it some more details with my small star tip.
Ribbon/Bow detail on the back of the cake.
On the back of the cake I used my flat tip to make a ribbon like bow with long ends. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect, it’s the back of the cake!
Front of cake
I added edible glitter to the top of the dress (hot pink) and white to the front of the dress, which (did not photograph very well) made the cake sparkle like every princess should. I also did a pink ruffle with my ribbon tip and then a white border around the sides and bottom to finish off. For the bodice I used my small star tip. And for the name I used my writing tip or the one that looks like a small circle. Be sure to save any leftover frosting in the fridge for touch-ups.
I stored the cake in the fridge until an hour before the party. I did notice that the bodice and the base of the cake had separated a bit so I had to touch it up a little with my left over frosting.
This cake served 20 people and we still had a a couple pieces left over. I sliced it about an inch wide so you had a large flat piece of cake with ice cream on top. The cake was very moist and everyone loved it!
I am going to attempt another type of cake for Ella’s 3rd birthday today…wish me luck and I will keep you posted on how it turns out.
