Ann Reardon

How to Make a Princess Cake Using Fondant

princess cake tutorial video how to

How to make a princess cake – Step 1

Make your cakes and gather what you need

You will need:
A round and a bowl shaped cake – see recipe at end of post
1 quantity of buttercream – see buttercream recipes here
Doll to go inside you cake – or you can make your own out of fondant. The video below shows you how to make a fondant face.  Lots of people seemed to be having trouble finding the reusable food grade molding gel, you can get it here: Food grade reusable mold making material

Cake board or cake stand to put the cake on
Large serrated knife to cut the layers
Simple syrup – see recipe at end of post
Fondant and red gel colour FONDANT RECIPE CAN BE FOUND HERE or you can purchase it ready made
Royal Icing – see royal icing recipe here
silver cachous (edible little silver balls)
flower cutter or small round lid or icing tip that you can use for cutting a circle
fine paint brush
baking paper
rolling pin
plastic wrap
small circle cookie cutter – you can use a knife to cut a circle if you do not have one

How to make a princess cake Step 2:

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

20mL (0.68 fluid ounces) or 2 Tbsp oil
120g (4.23 ounces) or 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp margarine or butter
1 1/2 cups or 324g (11.43 ounces) sugar (caster or super fine)
2 1/4 cups or 360g (12.7 ounces) plain or all purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups or 313mL (10.58 fluid ounces) milk (4% fat)
1 Tbsp vanilla essence
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 180C (356 degrees Fahrenheit).

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 it dips slightly in centre.  Pour remaining mixture into an 2L (0.53 gallons) ovenproof mixing 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.

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

princess doll cake tutorial

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

Simple syrup recipe
100g (3.53 ounces) or 1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar (caster or super fine)
100 millilitres (3.38 fluid ounces) or 1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp water
Optional – 1 Tbsp vanilla
Heat sugar and water stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Continue to heat until makes a syrup (approx 104ºC or 220ºF).
Remove from heat, allow to cool completely and put into squeezy bottle.

Assembling the Princess Cake
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. Split the bottom layer round cake 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, first brush each layer with syrup using a pastry brush, then 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 helps to stop crumbs mixing through the icing which makes it hard to get a smooth finish. Then apply a slightly thicker layer of buttercream and use a strip of baking paper to smooth – stretch it out firmly and drag it up the cake.

Place in the fridge to firm.
princess cake tutorial video

Roll out a strip of white fondant and wrap around the base of the cake creating creases and ruffles as you do.

Roll out the pink fondant into a rectangle and wrap around the cake. Making a rectangle helps you to get the fabric gathered look at the waist of the cake.  If you roll your fondant into a circle and place it over the cake it results in a skirt that is smooth at the top and ruffled only at the bottom which is not how fabric on these skirts fall. Around the base of the cake at even intervals push up the pink fondant to create a swagged look.

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 you can’t hold it because it is iced.  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.

Cover the body of the doll in pink fondant and then using a knife shape the top of the bodice. Place the doll into the cake – bending the legs slightly if it needs to sit lower in the cake. Roll out some white fondant and cut it into a circle. Using the base of an icing tip or small round cutter cut a scalloped pattern around the edge of the circle. Cut a small circle out of the centre of this and then split one side and place around the waist of the doll, cutting off any excess.

princess cake how to

Using either a flower cutter or the technique shown in the video make fondant flowers, place a silver cachous in the centre.  You will need one for the waist and one for each swag on the skirt, make a couple of extra just in case you break one.

cake decorating video princess

Place your royal icing in a ziplock bag (royal icing recipe here), cut off a tiny corner and pipe details onto the cake.  If you want to do rows of dots like shown pipe three dots down then two dots next to it in line with the spaces, then another three… when you reach a swag pipe a few more dots going up the dress.    Attach the flowers using the royal icing.

princess doll cake tutorial

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

2013

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations 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.

248 Comments View Comments

  1. 2pastime

  2. Rating: 4.5

    Amazing

  3. Rating: 5

    My husband always sends people a Godzilla image on Facebook for their birthday. I’d like to surprise him with a Godzilla princess cake at some point, but the legs are much thicker! Is there any way to do this? Maybe a slot in the back that you refill? How can I put a one foot Godzilla doll in a pretty princess dress?

  4. Rating: 5

    Hi

    Can I use self raising flour?

    Thanks

  5. Rating: 5

    Hi, I finished this cake for my grand daughter Angela just before Christmas, I have never done piping before so I did a little less than in your cake. Everyone likes it and Angie was delighted so that’s what counts the most. I have only one problem with these cakes. I’ve done the Flash McQueen car, the unicorn cake and this princess cake, but the kids don’t want us to cut them up to eat them

  6. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann,
    Just to let you know that I browse your older videos if I am searching for something. And the old ones are great, too!
    This time I needed a princess cake for my daughter´s theatre group rehearsing “The Princess and the Pea”.

    • Looks amazing Corina, well done ?

  7. HI Ann ,I made the cake today, but the doll was to tall, I followed your instructions to the tee.But the cake was not high enough for the barbie doll, i had to take her legs off because I had already put the pink on I had to improvise. It looks ok a bit short, what have I done wrong? I live in England what size doll do you use.

    • Hi Veronica, I don’t think you did anything wrong, they are making the barbie dolls with longer and longer legs (just not normal proportions). This recipe is pretty old now, and Ann did not use a Barbie, so perhaps if you make it again, you may need to add another layer to suit Barbie’s proportions!

  8. The cake crumbled and I couldn’t cut it to the shape. I have put in in the fridge overnight and will try and decorate it tomorrow, you made it look so easy!

    • Hi Liz, Try a sugar syrup brushed over the cake to keep the edges moist and to prevent crumbling.

  9. HI I just wanted to ask you how much buttercream I will need I have done an 8″ dome on top of a 10″ cake.? Also how much fondant will I need? Many thanks will take a pix once made.

    • Hi Marilyn, I would make a double quantity of buttercream, but how much of it you use will depend on how many layers you have in your cake and how much frosting you use between. With fondnat you want to have more than you need so you can roll and shape it with ease. I would estimate you would need around 1kg but you could get 2kg or an extra 500g so you have so you have plenty to work with. Any left over can be stored in an airtight container for another project.

  10. Ann, Please, Did You Cover The Cake With White Before Using Pink?

    • Hi Joyce, Ann just used pink frosting and then placed the white fondant frill at the base and covered the cake with pink fondant.

  11. Hi I have been asked to make a Princess cake for my grandaughter’s 3rd birthday however there will be 30 children to feed – what quantity should I use?

    • Hi Marilyn, This recipe makes about 20 serves or 20 cupcakes. I would double it for a party but perhaps make the cake as is and some extra princess cupcakes to match. It really depends on big you want your serves to be.

  12. Hiya! I would like to know how much ingredients I will be needing to serve a 20 people. How many slice/ serve is this cake please.

    • Hi Diamond, It will depend on how big you want your serves to be. This cake serves 10-12 good serves or up to 15 if you make the serves a little smaller.

      • Okay, thank you very much that was very helpful Xx

  13. Can I double the sponge cake recipe to make a sheet cake?

    • Yes you can.

  14. Can I double the Spong Cake recipe to make a sheet cake?

  15. Thank you so much for this tutorial
    this was my first time using fondant but I’m really happy with how it turned out!

    • Great work Rochelle!

  16. Hi Ann

    The above tutorial helped me to make my 1st ever princess cake and more since… however, whilst I’m fine with the fondant, I just can’t get the cake right. I get a runny batter every time, even when I beat the fats and sugar first. It always seems like I’m using too much liquid. I’ve been doubling all the quantities in the above recipe, so have been using 626ml of milk. Please help… where am I going wrong? Thanks for all the brilliant tutorials and videos (so much better than watching TV)!

    • Hi Philippa, I will double check the ingredients but at when I look at the ratios for 1 quantity you have 3 and 3/4cups of dry ingredients to 1 and 3/4 cups of wet ingredients plus the 3eggs. That shouldn’t make for a mix that is too wet. Check you are doubling all the dry ingredients, then next time hold a cup of the milk in reserve and add it slowly till you feel the consistency is right. In the mean time, I will check the quantities and update the recipe if anything is out.

  17. Hi Ann, thank you so much. Everyone appreciated that taste of the cake. It was perfect. I am just a beginner and this is my fourth cake so it was difficult to handle fondant and shaping the flowers. Thanks a lot Ann for your great help.

    • Hi Sreepallavi, handling fondant well takes lots or practice and finding a brand that you are happy with. A brilliant first go if you ask me!

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