PRINCESS CAKE USING BUTTERCREAM

How to Make a Princess Cake using Buttercream

How to make a princess cake step 1

Bake your cakes and gather what you need:

A round and a bowl shaped cake – see recipe at end of post
1 quantity of buttercream – see buttercream recipes here if you don’t like buttercream try italian meringue instead
A doll to go inside you cake
Cake board or cake stand to put the cake on
Large serated knife to cut the layers
Simple syrup – see recipe at end of post
red gel colour
large ziploc bags for piping& scissors to cut bags
White or pink sprinkles or silver cachous depending on the bodice style you choose

How to make a princess cake step 2:

Turn your cakes out of their baking dishes and allow to cool completely (warm cakes will melt the buttercream).

To shape the bowl cake place it flat side down and then slice off the bulging round bits at the top edge so that it looks more like flowing hooped skirt and not a bowl.  Hooped skirts are tailored in towards the waistline.

Cut this cake into 3 layers – that is make two cuts through the cake. Take your other cake and cut into two layers. Then take a round cookie cutter and cut a circle out of the centre of all of these cake layers.

To construct the cake place buttercream between the layers and stack. Make a very thin ‘crumb coat’ of buttercream on the outside of the cake and place it in the fridge to harden – this will help the piped buttercream to stick to your cake. Do not worry too much if it is not perfectly smooth or beautiful looking just do your best.  Place in the fridge to firm up.Cut your ziplock bag in the way shown in the video above and fill one bag with pink and the other with plain buttercream.  Using the plain buttercream pipe a ruffle around the base of the cake.  Then taking the pink buttercream and starting just above the line you just did pipe a pink ruffle around the cake.  Repeat up to the top of the cake.

Take your doll and make the hair how you want it to be – this is easier to do while you can hold the doll rather than when it is covered in icing.  If you are having the hair down then you may like to loosely put it up while you are icing.  Surround the legs of the doll in plastic wrap.

bodice 1

bodice 2

bodice 3

Choose which bodice style you prefer and pipe the buttercream onto the body of the doll (see video for demonstration) allowing it to come lower than you need.  Then holding the doll by the head place it into the center of the cake – bending the legs slightly if it needs to sit lower in the cake.

Take your bag or pink buttercream and pipe one final frill around the waist to cover any gaps at the waist.

Vanilla Cake Recipe

(you need to double this recipe to make the princess cake. If making cupcakes this recipe makes twenty)

20ml (4 teaspoons) oil
120g (4.23 ounces) or 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp margarine or butter
1 1/2 cups or 330g (11.64 ounces) sugar
2 1/4 cups or 370g (13.05 ounces) plain flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups or 312ml milk
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
3 or 177g (6.24 ounces) large eggs (59g (2.08 ounces) each)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
For best results put the butter, oil and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 3 minutes on high speed until pale and fluffy. Add all of the remaining ingredients at once and beat on low speed for 1 minute only so it is just combined.
Just over half fill a 20cm (7.87 inches) round cake tin and spread mixture over to the sides so dips slightly in centre.  Pour remaining mixture into an ovenproof mixing bowl, mine was 20cm (7.87 inches) diameter at the top of the bowl.   Bake in moderate oven until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Tip: For the mixing bowl cake once it looks done – but when you insert the skewer it is still gooey – move it to the bottom shelf and place an empty baking tray on the top shelf to allow it to keep cooking without the top burning.

Buttercream recipes for various flavours of buttercream area available on the buttercream post.

Simple syrup recipe
100g (3.53 ounces) or 1/2 cup sugar
100ml or 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp water
Optional – 1 tablespoon of vanilla
Heat sugar and water stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Continue to heat until makes a syrup (approx 105 deg C or 220 degrees F). Remove from heat, allow to cool completely and put into squeezy bottle.

AURORA CAKE

Aurora's Birthday Cake

Making a birthday cake befitting a princess, like Aurora, calls for the perfect recipe. Try as she might, the fairy Fauna just couldn’t seem to find one that measured up, so she decided to stir a little magic into the batter. There’s some surprise ingredients in this fantastical faux cake, too, but you don’t need a magic wand to whip it up. It’s made with ingredients from the craft store shelves: boxes, decorative tape, and glitter glue.

Time: 1 hour

What You'll Need

•

Newspaper

•

Acrylic or craft paint (white or off-white, pink, and yellow)

•

Paintbrush or foam brush

•

3 round boxes with lids

•

Cotton swabs

•

Scissors

•

Decorative tape and paper flowers (look for them in the scrapbooking aisle of the craft store)

•

Glitter glue

•

Glue gun or tacky glue

•

Pushpin

•

Small nail

•

Toothpick

How To Make It

• 1
  Cover your work surface with newspaper. Remove the lids from the boxes and turn the boxes upside down. Paint the outer surfaces of the lids and boxes white or off-white (for a butter cream frosting look).
• 2
  While the boxes dry, prepare birthday candles for the cake top. For each one, pull the cotton off the ends of a cotton swab. Use another cotton swab to paint the upper tip of each stick yellow (to resemble a flame). When the tips are dry, paint the lower parts of the sticks pink. Set the candles aside to dry.
• 3
  Now it's time to decorate the cake. Start by applying decorative tape around the rim of each box top. Then trim the circumference of each box bottom by piping on glitter glue. Decorate the sides of the cakes with paper flowers, securing them with glue if they are not self-adhesive.
• 4
  Use the pushpin to make starter holes in the cake top for the candles. Then enlarge the holes with the tip of the small nail until they are just big enough to insert the candles. Secure the candles in place, if needed, by spreading a bit of glue around the bases (the tip of a toothpick works well for this).
• 5
  Now stack the cake layers, as shown. You can glue them together or leave them unglued so your child can assemble them as many times as she likes.

SUPER FUDGY BROWNIES

Ingredients

• 10 ounces bittersweet or milk chocolate, chopped
• ⅔ cup unsalted butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 ounces white chocolate chips or chunks
• 3 ounces milk chocolate chunks

Method

How to make Triple Chocolate Brownies

Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C) and grease and line an 8-inch pan with parchment paper.

In a bowl resting over a pot of barely simmering water, melt chocolate and butter, stirring gently. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and vanilla.

Stir in eggs, one at a time. Stir in flour and salt. Fold in white and milk chocolate chips.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of the brownies comes out clean. Cool before slicing.

EASY OREO CUPCAKES

Ingredients

1 pkg

oreos, regular size

1 pkg

mini oreos, for decoration

1 pkg

chocolate cake mix/ mix according to directions on box

8 oz

cream cheese, room temperature

8 Tbsp

butter, room temperature

3 3/4 c

powdered sugar

1 tsp

vanilla extract

cupcake liners

DirectionsStep-By-Step

1

 Preheat oven to 350. Mix packaged cake mix according to directions. (Do not bake.)

2

 Line cupcake tins with liner, place an regular size oreo cookie in the bottom of each one

3

 Take 1/2 of remaining cookies and chop coarsely and add to cake mix. Fill the cupcake tins. Bake for 15 min (or according to box directions). While cupcakes are baking make the frosting.

4

 Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add vanilla, then add powdered sugar slowly until blended well.

5

 Chop remaining regular-sized Oreos very fine. Add to frosting.

6

 After cupcakes are cool put frosting on and decorate with a few mini oreos on top

STRAWBERRY CUPCAKES WITH STAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

Prep Time: 35 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cup cake flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/3 cup fresh strawberry puree*
• 1/4 cup buttermilk**
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 drops red food coloring (optional)
• 3/4 cup diced strawberries (dice into about 1/4-inch pieces)
• Diced and whole strawberries for topping (about 1 lb small strawberries)
Frosting (double recipe if making for a double layer cake)
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp strawberry puree
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, nearly at room temperature
• 1/4 cup salted butter, nearly at room temperature
• 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 drops red food coloring (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift cake flour into a mixing bowl then add baking powder, baking soda and salt, whisk 20 seconds, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter and granluated sugar until pale and fluffy (occasionally stop and scrape down bowl throughout entire mixing process if not using a paddle attachment that constantly scrapes bowl). Mix in egg then mix in egg whites one at a time. In liquid measuring cup used to measure buttermilk, whisk together the buttermilk, 1/3 cup strawberry puree and the vanilla extract. Working in three separate batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, add 1/3 of the flour mixture (to the butter mixture) alternating with half of the buttermilk mixture and mixing just until combined after each addition. Fold in the 3/4 cup diced strawberries. Divide batter among 12 paper lined muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full (nearly 1/3 cup in each). Bake in preheated oven 20 - 23 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
• For the Strawberry Buttercream Frosting:
• Add 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp strawberry puree to a small saucepan. Heat mixture over medium-low heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally until reduced by about 2/3 to 3 Tbsp, about 10 - 14 minutes (measure and if it isn't quite 3 Tbsp then return and continue to simmer, if it's not reduced to correct amount it will make frosting runny). Pour reduced puree into a small bowl, then freeze until cool (stir occasionally for even chilling, it will chill quickly in the freezer since it's such a small amount).
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip unsalted and salted butter until very pale and fluffy (nearly white. Stop and scrape down bowl occasionally throughout entire mixing process if not using the paddle attachment that constantly scrapes bowl). Mix in 1 cup powdered sugar, then blend in 3 Tbsp reduced strawberry puree, vanilla extract, and optional red food coloring. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and continue to mix until frosting is pale and fluffy, adding in an additional 1/4 cup powdered sugar if needed to reach desired consistency.
• To assemble cupcakes:
• Place a small mound of small diced strawberries on top center of cupcakes. Pipe frosting around and over berries then decorate with a whole small strawberry. Store cupcakes in an airtight container.
• *To get the strawberry puree, puree strawberries in a food processor then measure out amount needed. For both the puree for cupcakes and frosting it was about 10 medium strawberries but that amount will vary just depending on the size of your strawberries.
• **I just used the buttermilk substitute, so if you don't have buttermilk on hand simply add a scant 1 tsp lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup, then add in enough milk to reach 1/4 cup. Whisk and let rest 3 minutes.
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

You need this here…

…to make this luscious frosting here.

And you need a cake batter like this…

…to get cupcakes like this.

MARBLED CUPCAKES RECIPE

Easy marbled cupcakes recipe

•  Serves 12
 
•  20 mins to prepare and 25 mins to cook
 
•  439 calories / serving

INGREDIENTS

150g butter, softened

150g caster sugar 

175g self-raising flour

3 medium eggs

50ml warm milk

3 level table spoon cocoa powder,sifted

FOR THE FROSTING

150g butter ,softened

250g icing sugar

TO DECORATE

1 x 37g maltesers,roughly chopped

6 strawberries,chopped

Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 170°C. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases.

In a large bowl, put the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and milk, then whisk with an electric hand-whisk on a medium speed for 1 minute.

Divide the mixture between 2 bowls and stir the cocoa powder into one of the mixtures. Using a teaspoon, take small dollops of each cake mixture and spoon them alternately into the muffin cases. Using a skewer or the end of a teaspoon, mark a cross a couple of times right through the mixture to create the marbling.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Whisk the frosting ingredients together. Spread the mixture onto the cupcakes. Decorate with chopped Maltesers and strawberries.