Barbie Cake!

Earlier this week, I received my first ever real cake order! My mom often takes my left-over baking adventures to work, and a lady that works in the office (and has sampled my work), asked me to do her little girl's birthday cake.  The little girl, who is turning 7, wanted a Barbie cake.  I have never done a Barbie cake before, but after watching many videos on assembly and looking at lots of pictures, this is the final result:

Chocolate cake with buttercream icing, covered in and accented with homemade marshmallow fondant

The assembly of the cake was much easier than I expected it to be.  I baked two 8x2 round cakes and one dome shaped cake in a Pyrex bowl.  (Note: when baking in a Pyrex bowl, do not overfill and allow for 15 extra minutes baking time).  I used the same chocolate cake recipe from Dad's Tuxedo Cake (found a couple entries down) for its stability and tastiness. I cut a round hole in the middle of each cake, for Barbie to go in later. Then, I stacked the two 8x2 cakes on top of one another, using buttercream frosting as filling, and then stacked the dome on top of that.  I made sure the cakes were very very cold before assembly and this made it much easier to work with.  I had to trim up the sides a little bit because the round cakes were wider than the dome. I then covered my skirt-shaped cake in a crumb coating of buttercream frosting, put Barbie in the center (her bottom half is wrapped in plastic wrap) and let it set up, in the fridge, over night.

I made the marshmallow fondant earlier this week, using a basic recipe I found on cakecentral.com:
16 oz mini marshmallows
3 tablespoons of water
2 lbs of powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
- Melt the marshmallows and water together in the microwave.  Add the vanilla.  Coat your hands, the bowl, and the counters in Crisco. Add the sugar and stir until you can not stir anymore. Dump the fondant out on your greased counter and kneed like you would a dough until it forms a stretchy yet solid ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let it set at least overnight before use. -

I tinted the fondant pink with Wilton gel icing colors and rolled it out.  Then, I cut a hole in the center of the round of fondant for Barbie and dropped it over the cake.  Very quickly, before the fondant stretched too much, I pinched it all together in little gathers at the top of her waist, to form the pleats. The natural fall of the fondant formed a pretty skirt.  I filled in the open places at the bottom with buttercream ruffles, to look like a petticoat.  The rest, just kind of came to me as I did it, therefore, I can't really give specific instructions.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me! =)

Here are some pictures of Barbie from every angle:

The petticoats are my favorite =)

The back, with a flower bow at her waist

The fondant fell and made pretty, natural looking fabric

The little frosting star pillows are for candles - there are 7.

I wish my writing was better.  Practice, Practice, Practice!

Well, there she is!  I'm really happy with how Barbie turned out, and I really hope the family enjoys their cake.  Lets all keep our fingers crossed that delivery goes smoothly!

Happy Baking!