Princess Birthday Cake

This year Brooke asked for a Ballerina Princess Cake again!

But this time, a blue one. And I had the perfect barbie for it!

To make her cake, just like last year, I had to make 4 layers which is a lot of cake! But somehow it always gets eaten when we're at John's parents' house. With all the boys in the family, there's usually only a small amount left by the end which is good!

For the inside, Brooke wanted strawberry and funfetti cake along with a vanilla mouse filling.

I decorated it based on a picture of a Rapunzel barbie cake I found online. 

After filling, stacking, icing, and then chilling the cake, I wrapped the barbie's legs in plastic wrap and squished her into the cake through a small hole I cut in the top. 

To get the ruffles to hold their shape this year, I added extra powdered sugar to the icing (as well as cream cheese emulsion which gives it a good flavor). I also used heavy whipping cream instead of milk in the icing this year but I'm not sure if that made much of a difference...

To keep the ruffles more evenly spaces, I marked where the top of the ruffles would meet with a toothpick.

Once the ruffles were piped on and the cake was chilled again in the fridge, I saved some of the white frosting and died the rest blue.

I then iced the rest of the skirt blue. You can't really tell in the picture, but I used a paintbrush to sprinkle (more like flick) silver luster dust on the blue skirt to give it some sparkle. 

Next, I added some red die to the blue icing to make it purple. I piped on the purple decorations and finished up the cake with a white pearl necklace. 

It was good to have a chance to practice piping again since I don't do that very much. And I thought it turned out pretty good! Definitely better than last years.

Judging by the kind of girl Brooke is, I'm guessing she'll want this kind of cake for her next birthday. Fingers crossed we still have enough family close by to help eat it all next year! Haha!