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I made this cake for my daughter, Katie Scarlett's 7th birthday. It is beautiful and not too difficult. Some cake decorating skill is required. If you would like to make this cake, there are things you need to do ahead of time. Make the snow flakes, prepare the cake board, order Elsa and Olaf figures (Disney Frozen Figurine Set
) and figure out how you are going to get it into the fridge well in advance.
My daughter, Katie Scarlett, also wrote, illustrated and published an adorable book that most little girls would love titled "Princess Katie and the Fairy Tea Party". You can order it on amazon.
ROYAL ICING SNOW FLAKES
The first thing you need to do is make the royal icing snowflakes. These can be done a week or so in advance. Do not wait until the last minute to attempt to make these snow flakes. It is super important that everything that touches the Royal icing be CLEAN. A spec of oil or grease will ruin the icing. Wash everything before you start. This is what you will need.
Wax Paper
Print out snowflake patters
Clean new icing bag used only for Royal Icing
Tip 2 with coupler (super clean)
Clean bowl
Clean beaters
Clean spatula
Clean teaspoon
small paint brush
Mix up the icing according to the box instructions. If it looks super thick you should add another teaspoon or two of water. It does not need to be too thick to make the snow flakes. It if is too thick, squeezing the icing bag will hurt your hands. Then, put some royal icing into the icing bag.
Put a sheet of wax paper over your snow flake patters and start working. If the icing is too thick, you can remix it with more water. OR you can remove the metal tip and stick the icing bag in the microwave for 10 seconds to warm and soften the icing. Make lots of extra snowflakes because they are very fragile and half of them will break.
Let the snowflakes sit out to dry overnight. When they are dry, carefully brush pearl dust over them. Just dip your small paint brush into the bottle of pearl dust. Then carefully transfer the snowflakes to a tupperware and save them until it is time to make the cake. They do not need to be refrigerated.
Baking the Cake
The day before the party, it is time to bake and decorate the cake. Start first thing in the morning so the cakes have time to cool before you ice them.
2 cake mixes (I like Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge or Duncan Hines French Vanilla)
4 inch cake pan (I used a 3 inch deep pan but 2 inch deep would be fine.)
6 inch cake pan (2 inches deep)
8 inch cake pan (2 inches deep)
Baker's Joy (pan spray)
toothpicks (to check cake for doneness)
Start by fitting the bake even strips around the 6 inch and 8 inch pans. Do NOT use bake even strips around the 4 inch pan. It is too small and won't bake properly. Fill up a bowl with cold water and soak the bake-even strips while you are mixing up the cake. Push them under the water and squeeze them a little so they absorb some water.
Mix up your cake mixes. Spray each pan with a thick coat of Baker's Joy pan spray. Put approximately 3 cups of batter in the 8 inch round pan. Put approximately 2 cups of batter in the 6 inch round pan. Put about 1 cup of batter in the 4 inch round pan. This takes slightly over 1 box of cake mix. Use the extra mix to bake cupcakes after these cakes come out of the oven.
Next, slide the dripping wet bake even strips back around the filled pans. Do not ring them out. They need to be dripping. Bake at 350 degrees F. Check cakes after 25 minutes but it will probably take longer. Cakes are done when toothpick comes out clean. In this picture, I have a bake-even strip around the 4 inch pan. It did not bake properly so that is how I know NOT to use bake-even strips around the 4 inch pan.
When the cakes are done remove them from the oven and let cool in the pan for about 20 minutes. Then carefully, remove them from the pan. They should fall right out if you used enough Baker's Joy. Let them cool on a cooling rack if you have one. Let cool for 2 hours before icing. While the cake is cooling, prepare the cake board as described below.
STACKING CAKES AND CRUMB COATING
white contact paper
icing spatula
Icing bag
Tip 12 with coupler
Wilton Sky blue food coloring
Wilton Teal food coloring
Buttercream icing (2 pounds confectioners sugar, 4 sticks softened unsalted butter , 2 teaspoons real vanilla extract, 4 tablespoons milk)
Aqua candy pearls (Sixlets or Celebration brand)
Wooden skewer
White VIva Paper towel with NO PATTERN (for smoothing the cake)
After the cake has cooled, the fun begins. Prepare the cake board by taping 2, 10 inch cardboard cake circles together. Cover the cake board in white contact paper. (This allows you to easily wipe off the icing mess.)
Then mix up your butter cream icing using 2 pounds of confectioners sugar. Beat it until it is nice and creamy. Before you color it, fill an icing bag up with white buttercream and tip 12. You will use this to make the white "snowballs". Color the rest of the icing aqua. Since I use real butter in my buttercream icing, it already has a yellowish tint. I found that I mostly needed to use Wilton Sky Blue food coloring to achieve the desired aqua color. I used a tiny bit of teal but that made the icing too green and I had to add more of the sky blue. So, start using just the Sky Blue and add Teal if necessary. Once you get the color that you want, put a scoop of icing into a small bowl to be used for the "crumb coat". Cover the large bowl of icing with a damp towel so it doesn't dry out.
Next, trim the bump off the top of each cake using the cake leveler. If the cake looks pretty flat, you don't have to worry about cutting off the top. Since the layers are stacking, they need to be fairly flat.
Next, put a little buttercream directly onto the cake board to "glue" the bottom layer on. Then put the 8 inch layer on top of the cake board and press it down gently. Using the icing from the small "crumb coat" bowl, to put a thin layer of icing all over the bottom layer. This layer of icing will "glue" the crumbs onto the cake.
Then put the 6 inch layer on top and center it. Press it down gently. Ice that layer with a thin "crumb coat" as well.
Then put the top layer on and press it down gently. Ice that layer in the thin crumb coat. Here is my cake fully crumb coated.
Next, it is time to insert a wooden skewer in to hold the cake together. This in not absolutely necessary for this small cake but it is absolutely essential for larger cakes. (Of course, larger cakes would use cardboard cake circles underneath each layer which this small cake does not require.) Simply trim a wooden skewer to the approximate height of the cake and stick it down the center until you feel it poke into the bottom cake board.
Here is my cake with the skewer in.
Next, put the cake in the fridge for about 30 minutes. It is best for the crumb coat to be cold and hard before you put the final layer of icing on. I fit my cake into an upside down toy box that just fit into the fridge.
FINAL COAT OF ICING
After the cake is cold, it is time to put on the final coat of icing. This is a thick coat of aqua icing that should not contain crumbs. Just do the best you can and use a lot of icing. If you see a crumb, use a toothpick to get it out. Here is a picture of my cake after I applied the final coat of icing. It is normal to see spatula marks. Let the cake sit out (not in the fridge) for exactly 15-20 minutes for the icing to dry before you smooth it.
SMOOTHING THE CAKE
How do professionals get their icing so smooth? One trick is to use Viva Paper Towel (the Viva with absolutely no pattern). Let the iced cake sit (out of the fridge) for 15-20 minutes. The icing needs to dry and crust a little before you smooth it. If you leave it too long and it gets too dry, you won't be able to smooth it. After 15 minutes, lay a piece of Viva Paper towel gently over the cake. Use the back of your finger to gently rub the icing. Your finger should move but the paper towel should NOT move. After one area is smooth, move the paper towel to another area. Use new sheets of paper towel frequently. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the cake after I smoothed it.
DECORATING
Use your icing bag with white buttercream and tip 12 to pipe snowballs around the base of each cake. They may come out looking like hershey kisses instead of balls. However, after the icing dries a little, you can use your finger to pat them down into balls.
Next, place an aqua pearl in between each snowball.
Then gently place your icing snowflakes around on the cake.
Put Elsa and Olaf on top of the cake (wash them first). I ordered this Disney Frozen Figurine Set
Put a large snowflake behind Elsa and Olaf.
Store the cake in the fridge overnight. Remove Elsa and Olaf if they are too tall. Do the dishes and go to bed because it is most likely midnight. E-mail me if you have any questions. phd.annie at gmail.com
It was hard work but it my daughter sure loved it and had a great birthday!
--Annie Pryor
phd.annie@gmail.com
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