I always wish that I could redo each cake I make and make all sorts of improvements. With this order for a barbie cake from my goddaughter "Bella" I had a chance to practice Barbie cake making (my second) and fondant (my third attempt). It turned out OK. OK, I was pleased. Besides a big repaired rip by Barbie's rear and the slightly (no, completely) unsymmetrical decorations on her dress, I was reasonably satisfied with the attempt at fondant, which I really do not like making, partially because it is tricky and mostly because it just does not taste very good, so I am always hesitant to put it on a cake. But the effect is nice, especially on the barbie dress, where the hard-to-correct pleats and wrinkles actually add to the appearance of the dress and there is little smoothing required. So bring on the Barbie cakes. I am ready!
The Recipe
My standard go to chocolate cake recipe.
For chocolate frosting/filling I used a chocolate-rum pastry filling that I learned in my one and only dessert baking class. I can't seem to find a similar one online and I use an old stained xerox copy when I make the recipe. If anyone ever reads this and wants the recipe, I will add it on. But since the dawn of Facebook, I find my blogging time severely reduced :). And my readership even further reduced. From about 2 people to 0. So basically this is my own online archive of cake making. So note to self- use the stained pastry filling recipe in flour covered binder marked desserts.
The mother of the birthday girl was kind enough to give me some preserved cherries, so I mixed those in with the pastry filling, which was a nice addition as chocolate on chocolate is just a bit too rich. If I get a chance I will use the remaining 2.5 jars of cherries to make this recipe that I absolutely love yet rarely have enough cherries/chocolate/booze on hand to make without pre-planning.
The I topped the Barbie with a standard marshmallow fondant recipe, some left over rum-flavored whipped cream (yeah, it was a children's party, but a few tsp's never killed anyone) and edible (but controversial) silver beads, that are luckily still available here in Latvia.
The Result
I was happy, Bella was happy, all involved parties were happy enough and I was happy to get some feedback about ooohs and ahhs from other parents, that always gives me a bit of a boost. No children were traumatized by the legless doll torso that I was able to use for this cake, shipped to me by mom in the States, which is also good. Not much more to comment on this one, just happy I could document it while still in my memory. Happy Birthday, my dear Bella! Start planning for next year!
