Paige's 8th Birthday

Paige asked for another princess cake this year.  I wanted to attempt something a little different than last time, not to mention the character she wanted had a dress that was much more complicated.  So, I did my internet research to find some new techniques and try my hand at another cake dress.

This cake was a recipe that was supposed to be dense and especially good for cake carving.  It turned out EXTREMELY dense and my entire family said it tasted more like scones than cake.  The cake made up the bottom half of the dress, and I used rice krispies on the top to shape it around the doll and to make it knee length.  It had good form but needed a little propping to keep it straight.

The lower layers of the dress are edible fabric.  This is rice paper covered with a gelatin which makes it plyable and sticky, and then I dusted it with color.  The concept was good and it took a couple tries with different thicknesses of rice paper, but I eventually figured it out, and it looked great!  The real struggle came in attaching it to the cake.  I could not find a good way to do it (i.e. frosting, gelitan, water, corns syrup), so I ended up cheating and using toothpicks.  The papers dried quickly once I took them out of the contain I stored them in, but I was done in time.  I would definitely do this concept again, but will need to research the best way to get it to stay how I place it on the cake.

Finally, I had attempted a new fondant which is marshmallow mixed with Wilton brand fondant.  I really liked it and will definitely use it again as it was less sticky and more moldable than marshmallow alone.