The Princess Castle Cake

My second cake came just a week after my first. I had seen the Wilton castle cake set online so Issie was given the choice between that and Barbie doll cakes. She chose the castle. This cake was by far more complicated than any other I've done. It started with a 2-layer 9" strawberry cake and a 2-layer 6" strawberry cake. I covered them in white fondant. This was my first experience with fondant, and from what I'd read, I thought it worked like any dough that you roll out. It does, to an extent. What I didn't realize is that you can't just smooth pieces together when they tear. Oops. Yeah, that spot became the back of the cake where it wouldn't be as noticeable. Here's the pink cake with white fondant.

After I put the fondant on, I put the pieces together to try to figure out how I should construct the final cake. This was the pic I took with my phone and sent to JR for his advice.

The next step was to decorate all the pieces. The final assembly and decoration would take place at Victor and Melanie's house before the party. I got some piping gel for the window frames and door frames. I outlined the windows on the towers and stuck them in the fridge to set. Then, instead of just outlining the window and door on the main cake, I got a paintbrush I've used for candy-making and glazed them.

Just a note. Piping get does not set. It stays soft no matter what you do. I found this out after I took the towers back out and added the flowers to the window sills. If I ever make this cake again, I will be glazing all the windows. It looks much better than just outlining the frame.

The peaks that went on top of the towers were supposed to be "painted" too so I covered them in a thin layer of buttercream frosting and then sprinkled pink sugar.

All the pieces were then transported to the party to be put together. On the way, one of the towers rolled and smudged so I had to redo the layout of the castle. That's okay, though. I think it turned out better with one less tower. It was a bit crowded before. I put the cake on one of Melanie's cutting boards and attached the towers and peaks with melted white chocolate. To cover the tips of the peaks where I had held them, I put a little dollop of frosting with the star tip. I added more flowers and leaves to cover the seams and wrote Issie's name on the second layer. Here's the final result.

I'm very proud of it. Now I'm excited to try more. I'm making a cake for a friend's son's birthday party this coming Friday, but I don't know what it's going to look like yet. Then I'm going to make the cakes for Melanie's baby shower, whenever that will be. Hmmm. That's not enough. I need more people to need cakes. I want to make them, but I don't want them sitting around my house. Anyone need a cake decorated?