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. I made this cake in pink for my granddaughters 6th birthday. She LOVED it. Her cousin also fell in love with it and I have made it again in pale purple for her birthday today. Your video is so informative and easy to follow. Thank you for helping me make two lovely little girls happy.

  2. Hi Ann, I’ve just finished this cake for my daughter, think it’s turned out well considering it’s the first posh cake I’ve made. Thanks for your video, it’s so easy to follow. Laura

  3. Hola! I’ve been reading your website for some time now and finally got the
    bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Atascocita
    Texas! Just wanted to tell you keep up the excellent work!

  4. Ann, I had been stressing a lot about making my daughter’s Princess Belle cake until I discovered your video. Thank you so much. What I thought would be an ordeal turned into a lot of fun! I can’t believe I made this myself and my daughter absolutely loved it. Can’t wait for her next birthday now!

    • Beautiful job Sarah, sounds like you’ve caught the cake decorating bug 😀

  5. Thank you so much for your video by far the most comprehensive and easy to follow, had a little struggle with the fondant drying and cracking but other than that loved doing it, I was so nervous about this cake and watched you over and over and i am so pleased with the result thank you for inspiring me

  6. Hi ann….thank you so much, your video helps me a lot on making my cake…. im lookinv forward to see more video. Thanks!

    • Beautiful Melanie, and happy birthday to polly 😀

  7. Hi Ann,
    Today was the birthday celebration of my daughter and this is the doll cake I made using the guidance from your video. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us, and inspiring us to experiment such wonderful things..

    • beautiful Richy, i like the way you used different colours for the frills and the flowers are very pretty

  8. Thank you very much for your quick and kind reply Ann. Tomorrow is the big day on which I am going to make the cake. I ll send you a photo if it come out nicely. Watching again and again your video today…

    • 🙂

  9. Hi Ann,
    Yours is the first video that inspired me with ‘can do’ attitude for baking. I am planning to make this cake for my daughter’s 5th birthday in 4 more days. If I make this to be the ultimate result as 2kg cake, will it be too big to handle. And when serving is it ok to cut the cake into two horizontally from the middle and then cut into slices. Or if I cut through the entire height will a slice be too long. Thank you again for your amazing video.

    • hi richy, you can make the cake as big or small as you need just make sure it is on a strong cake board, and yes you can cut in layers if it is a bigger cake

  10. Hi Ann,
    When I pick up the fondant which has been cut into a large rectangle (for the dress) or a long strip (for the petticoat), the fondant stretches, distorts out o shape, thins and then breaks. Can you offer some advice/tips to help prevent this? Am I rolling the fondant too thin? In the video, your fondant is quite thin and you seem to be able to manipulate the fondant without it stretching. I find putting the first part on the dress without the fondant breaking difficult as the remainder of the fondant is pulling against the part on the cake.
    Also, with this cake, where could the birthday candles be placed? There doesnt seem to be room on the cake and I don’t want to set the doll’s hair alight!
    Many thanks for your help.
    Emma

  11. Hi Ann, thanks so much for posting this tutorial, you’re amazing! You’ve really inspired me to create this for my best friend’s 20th (she’s a child at heart!), I just hope I can pull it off as it’s my most ambitious yet.
    Just a few questions though: what’s the purpose of the oil in the cake recipe? Is it possible to just use a classic Victoria sponge recipe instead and if so will I have to double the quantities?
    Secondly, what should the consistency of the simple syrup be? I don’t think I’ve encountered it before.
    Lastly, I have a doll pick which is just the body of a doll without the legs, designed specifically for these kinds of cakes…do you think the decorating with fondant will be just the same as if there was a hole? With the gathering at the top for example…
    Sorry for all the questions and thanks again!

    • Hi Lisbon, yes you can use any cake recipe that you like and double the recipe. The simple syrup is slightly more viscous than water. Yes use the fondant in the same way, gather in the middle, trim excess off with scissors instead of poking it into the hole and then proceed as normal

      • OK, thanks very much! 🙂

  12. Hi!

    If I were to bake cupcakes, would they still be moist without the use of the syrup?

    I’ve been trying very hard to find a good recipe that produces MOIST vanilla cupcakes. And your recipe caught my eye because it incorporates oil.

    Do you have any recipes to recommend?

    Any help would be appreciated! 🙂

  13. This was my first attempt at a fondant cake for my daughter’s birthday. I followed your YouTube tutorial. Thanks for the guidance 🙂

    • sorry…here’s the picture!

    • JPEG

  14. Hi Ann

    Love your cake tutorial. I’m going to try and make it for my daughters 3rd birthday in October – though I would give the cake a test run today – epic fail. The cake tastes fab but when I tried to get it out of the bowl it fell apart – do you leave the cake to cool before trying to get it out? Do you run a knife round the edge first? What oil spray do you use in the bowl before you put the mixture in?

    Hope you can help – I’m so glad I did a test run!!

    Thanks
    Lisa

    • Hi Lisa, I use cooking oil spray on the bowl before cooking, I tend to take it out while it is still hot, run a knife around the top edge and give it a little shake up and down to loosen it then put a plate over the top and invert it. you can also put a small circle of baking paper in the base.

      • Thanks so much for replying. I tried again and this time really greased the bowl and added a small circle of paper at the bottom and woohoo it worked managed to decorate it as well and it looked fab – hopefully the actual cake turns out like test run 2!! Just another question do you think alternating cream and jam between the layers of cake instead of butter icing will work? A bit like a Victoria sponge but cream on one layer then jam on the next? Thanks so much really love this website!!

        Regards Lisa

        • hi lisa, yes if you seal it in with a ring of buttercream, see the rainbow cake for a demonstration of this.

          • Ann

            I managed to do the cake for my daughters party tomorrow – can’t believe I actually did it – really happy with it although I think I could have done better but with a 3 year old and 8 month old to look after I was quite stressed when making it!! Thank you so much for your help – my daughter will love it!!

            Regards
            Lisa

  15. or this thank you ann so so much for helping me

  16. I was thinking samething like this

  17. hi ann I was making your vanilla cake..that you had made in your barbie cake.. I wanted to ask you a big big question my godchild her birthday is in 3 months and she does ballerina classes I was really hopeing and praying if you could help me in any way of making a video of this cake for me please..
    I hope you could do me that falour thank you ann

  18. Hi Ann, please could you let me know what size cookie cutter you used to cut out the centre of the doll cake layers so a Barbie doll could fit in. Thanks

  19. hi ann I have tried your cake but sadly it didn’t cook I have try it two times and thay both didn’t cook was bakeing for 2 hours .. so I had to use the packet once and it work in a small tin of 12cms.. my daughter loved it

    • hi lisa, you cake looks great well done. Large cakes do take a long time to cook, were you making the chocolate mud cake or the sponge cake? The mudcakes will take a longer time to cook.

  20. Hi Ann,

    Please could you let me know what size ‘small circle cookie cutter’ I would need to cut a circle out of the center of the princess doll cake layers for the Barbie doll to fit into.

    Mny thanks!

    • Hi emma I used one that was 6cm and gave plenty of room so if it is a bit smaller that will be fine.

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