Frozen Elsa Cake
Little girls everywhere have fallen in love with the Disney Frozen movie, watching it repeatedly. Singing the ‘Let It Go’ song until parents don’t want to hear it anymore. Come birthday time they are of course wanting an Elsa cake. This one is as magical as the movie character herself with a flowing dress and beautiful see through glistening cape.
Frozen Elsa Cake
For the cake part you will need:
One and a half quantities of the rich chocolate cake recipe baked into two 20cm (7.87 inches) round cake tins and one 1L (0.26 gallons) greased bowl.
Two quantities of the chocolate buttercream recipe
For the decorations
1 Elsa Doll
1 x 30cm (11.81 inches) round cake board
1 piece of flexible clear plastic
2kg (4.41 pounds) white fondant note: I had 800g (28.22 ounces) left over but you need this amount so you can easily roll it out big enough to place over the doll
blue and green gel colour to make the dress colour
white luster dust
clean dry paintbrush
sharp knife, offset spatula
homemade cookie cutter (for instructions see the ipad cake video)
For the cape:
216g (7.62 ounces) or 1 cup of caster (superfine) sugar
63ml or 1/4 cup water
tiny bit of blue gel food colouring
non-stick baking paper
paper towel
Optional – home made snow flakes and snow around the cake board
Also check out:
Snowflakes Cups
Olaf Cake
2014
by Ann Reardon How To Cook That
My Cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country:
http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.
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Hi Ann! First time posting a reply but I’ve been looking at your site for about a year, since I started getting into making cakes and decorating with fondant for friend’s presents. I had to say love your work, so efficient, informative, interesting, succinct, but also with a good bit of dry Aussie humour from time to time. I made your elsa cake recently after buying a doll on ebay sans box for $15 plus shipping, and it turned out AWESOMELY. I just made the day of my 5-year old god-daughter!! I did use 3 packet cakes which were on sale at Coles for $2 each (Greens) and then melted in one third of a block of cooking choc to make it more chocolatey plus an extra egg. For people asking I used a larger Pyrex bowl with 2 packet cakes in and then a 28-30cm round tin for the third one. They were enough height (just) to do my Elsa but another half a packet in the round tin would probably have given a bit extra height she needed. I also cut the round cake into 4 layers with icing between each one and the bottom into 2 layers with icing between to make a bit if height. I didn’t have time to do the sugar cape so white fondant did the job. Also I rolled the blue fondant for the dress too thin in the middle and it ripped putting it over her, a big rip. The crumb coat was cool but still sticky so I couldn’t take it off and re-roll it, so I rolled a smaller circle and put it over the top so it looked like an extra dress layer. But I would caution everyone not to roll the dress that thinly!! Maybe 2-3mm in the middle caused mine to rip.. Just be cautious! I used pre-made Satin Ice fondant from Spotlight by the way. I would love to send you or post my pics of my Elsa, how can I do that?
I just figured out how to post a JPEG.. Hope it works!
Ok, my jpeg didn’t attach the first time (posting from my phone). Here’s hoping it works on the computer!
Here’s my Elsa cake…
Last try at uploading my Elsa cake pic before I give up – I reduced the file size of the original picture as it seemed to be much too big to load onto the site, which is why it wasn’t working before. Fingers crossed.
Yay it worked! Here is the back view with the fondant cape I did. (Also, I suggest that you add the image file size and resolution that can be happily uploaded on your site Ann, to help people upload pics if they want to! The image I reduced it down to 500 dpi, approx. 900 x 1000 pixels, from an original >2000 pixels, if anyone wants to know. I used the free image editing software GIMP which is like Adobe Photoshop but is free to download.)
We made the Elsa cake today for tomorrow, looks good. Had a couple of goes at the cape the first fizzed when we added colour. We found it works if you add a tablespoon of white vinegar to the sugar & water. Haven’t attached that yet , keeping it in a container until tomorrow so it won’t go sticky. Also making a little fondant Olaf. Pretty happy with results so far.
Hi Narelle, So glad this was working for you. Just be aware that adding vinegar as has been suggested will change the flavour. Also if you find that the colour is causing problems, you could swap the gel colour for a liquid colour in this instance. It is possible the product you are using is causing some issues.
Hi Ann,
I love your cake and videos! they are amazing 🙂 I am making cake for my daughters birthday and I have made a test cake and it turned out ok. Need to figure out a better fondant! I tried to make a marshmallow one but its to dull and cracks and tears to easily. My biggest struggle is the cape. It either won’t set or it just crumbles. Any advise?
Thanks Lisa
Hi Ann,
I am planning on making this cake for a friend.
Will the cake still look dress like if you use 1 normal round cake and the bowl cake, or do you have to use 2 normal round cakes? Also, Can you just put the fondant on by itself or do you have to put frosting underneath?
Thanks! P.S, I loved meeting you at the Sydney meet and greet and I hope you liked the cupcake cookies!!
xx
Hi can you please give some abode in the Cape. .
Mine won’t set. What’s the approximate time to cook the Sugar for?
Could we have some extra advice on the cape please? Many thanks
Hi Ann,
I tried to make the cape but it went horribly wrong. I boiled the sugar and water and waited for the thread stage but the water all got sort of evaporated and left the sugar crystallised in the pan. What did I do wrong? I don’t have a candy thermometer. Some recipes I checked online say to use cream if tartar and corn syrup but your recipe doesn’t mention those. Please advise. I’d love to make your Elsa cake for my daughter’s birthday. Thanks in advance!
Hi just followed your brill tutorial but am having problems with the cape
I have tried to make this cake for my daughter’s birthday. The cake is too sweet even I reduce the sugar and the cape is difficult to handle. My family love the cake and don’t want to cut it.
Firstly , thank you for you tutorials. i made this yesterday for my daughter’s birthday but the cape was a failure for me. I tried 3 times, still no luck. It didn’t set. I am not sure what went wrong 🙁
do u use readymade fondant?
Your fondant is really soft whenever i make it my becomes hard
Plz can u tell me your fondant recipe
Wonderful tutorial. Fabulous creations.
I made your Frozen cake but had a problem with the cape. The first three attempts just went disastrously wrong! I used white caster sugar and water. I then added blue sugarflair colour….then the mix started fizzing?! The pan was clean and the ingredients newly purchased.
I have been watching so many of your “creations” on YouTube, & also tried a few of them at home….they turned out amazing! This one is yet another to be added to the long list of your “amazing yet, not impossible” creations! Thank you so much for sharing.
Hi could you please tell me how many days in advance I can make this cake? Thanks.
Hi Saida, you could make the cake and carve and cover in buttercream and freeze. Then completely defrost and decorate the day before the party. Put the sugar cape on close to serving time
Hi Ann,
I love your tutorial & I want to make the Elsa cake. If I bake, ice & sculpt it can it be frozen?
How many people do you estimate is serves?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Hi Markets,
You can bake it, carve it and cover in buttercream and freeze. But then before you cover in fondant let it completely defrost. Otherwise the condensation form the freezing cold cake will make the fondant soggy
Hi Ann, could you please tell me how many days in advance I can make this, specially the cape? thanks
Hi Sadia, I would make the cake the day before or on the day that it is needed.
Hi, Ann
I would like to know where did you buy the Elsa Doll. Please let me know. Thank you very much! I’ll tried to find it on eBay but couldn’t find it.
Hi M.Lee I purchased it on ebay as the local shops had sold out.
Hi Ann!
Thank you for this tutorial! My nieces will surely love it if I make one for them!
Great, I love your post, I and my friend seen your video, its really so good. Thanks for sharing that.
thanks Sophia
Thanks Sophia 😀
Hi..greeeeeetings from Norway 🙂
Thank you soo much for your web site,I used your rich chocolate cake recipe for mye elsa cake,and it was so moist and gooooood 🙂 my elsa cake was a mixure of your elsa and princess cake and my daughter was thrilled,and all of her 16 invited to her birthdayparty had big eyes..hehe.. so thank you so much,i could give you a picture of the cake..but well.. Did you make your fondant yourself,if do you have a recipt? thanks again 😉
Hi taita, i usually just buy the fondant as there are some good ones on the market and they’re already coloured.
Also, what color fondant did you use?
it was blue with a little bit of yellow mixed in to get the aqua colour
Where do I get aluminum flashing 0.3 in the US and what did you use to make it that tiny? Also, we only have 8in pans, can I use that?
sorry I’ve had that question before, I’m not sure about where to get it in the USA. I just got mine from a local hardware store