Hi, I'm a newbie for sure, and doing my first doll cake (cinderella, of course!) ...it's also my first cake for someone other than family.

I have the wonder mold pan. Instead of using a doll pick, I'm using a cinderella barbie. Of course this means I need another layer of cake because barbie is too tall for the wonder mold. So, I have the molded cake plus the extra round for the bottom.

I am planning to make her dress out of fondant.

Questions:
- do you usually split and fill your doll cakes?
- I'm concerned about the weight of the fondant and all the cake squishing the bottom layer. Do you usually dowel doll cakes?

Anything else I should be thinking about? Cake is due on Tuesday. I plan on not getting much sleep Monday night.

Thanks for any wisdom you can share. I love cake central... been a lurker for a verrry loooong time!

When I make doll cakes I use two 8" tiers that are stacked on top of eachother with dowels and carve it.

You can fill your wonder mold you just have to torte it which can be a bit of a pain, but it can be done. You can also remove the barbie's legs and cover the stumps in plastic wrap and just insert the torso into the cake.. that way you don't have to worry about it not being tall enough for the barbie. Then just pop the legs back on when you are done.

I made the one in my photos and just used a mix with the 1 box of pudding and extra egg. It was strong enough to hold up with the buttercream and fondant.Add an extra cup of batter to the wonder mold pan, it can take it. I didn't and it wasn't even to the top when it baked.I never tort the doll cakes, to much of a hassle.The pic in my photos was my first doll cake and also my first time with fondant and it really wasn't that difficult. I had myself all worked up for nothing! I do highly recommend MARSHMALLOW FONDANT (MMF). Don't waste your money buying fondant. MMF is like $4 to make and super easy. I do suggest rolling the fondant out on a highly greased (crisco) counter top or it will stick. I tried rolling on powdered sugar and cornstarch and had problems.GODD LUCK!

thanks... I am going to try and make the MMF today. And I have some wilton(ick) fondant on standby... just in case!

MMF is a pain to make IMHO.. it almost never comes out the same way twice. If you get the marshmallows too hot the MMF gets really chewy and hard to work with. If you want to make your fondant (and I agree.. Wilton is gross) make real fondant. Michele Foster's Delicios Fondant (found in the recipe section is better than most commercial fondants and worlds better than MMF and costs the same and takes the same time to make. I highly recommend it.

Ditto what jkalman said about the MMF. Go with Michele Foster's recipe. The consistency is much better than that of MMF.

Now I normally dont torte a doll cake. You can but it is difficult. You will need to insert dowels in the round cake on the bottom.

If it is no taller than the barbie needs it to be, no you don't have to dowel it. I make mine from just stacked rounds torted with filling and a real barbie - and never dowel it. Just make sure you remove some cake where she goes, don't just jam her in.

several people have commented that torting a doll cake is difficult... why? what makes it more difficult?

I've never done it before, so I'm curious...

I think maybe they just mean that torting at all is more difficult than baking and decorating a giant hunk of cake. You also then have to contend with possible bulges and slipping. Nothing more difficult than torting any other cake.

oooh, that makes sense.

Bulging, slipping... and then there's my complete inability to cut anything level! Icing hides a multitude of sins in my book! Hee hee!


Thanks so much everyone... this forum is just fantastic!

Making level cuts in a cake that tall is hard. Torting in of itself isn't hard using a leveler, but you couldn't use a leveler on a cake from the wondermold pan since it's so damned tall. You could more easily do it with some unwaxed dental floss than a knife if you aren't of steady hand.

I torte my doll cakes all the time, make sure your icin is not too soft, a little stiffer, if you pipe a stiff dam then there is little chance of it slipping. Good luck and have fun!

Thank you so much for all of your help and advice. I ended up putting another layer under the main wonder mold cake... and put a cake board between them with dowels through the bottom layer. I did torte the wonder mold cake - kind of high, but it worked fine. I carved a hole for barbie first (that was a huge help - thanks for the tip!) and she was a LOT sturdier than I thought she would be. I have LOTS to learn, but I was pretty proud of the results, considering it was my first attempt ever!

Let's see if I can post a picture....

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She's beautiful!! Great job!

awwww...she is lovely i am sure that will make a little girls day!

very beautiful for a 1st try. gd job.

btw, can i know how many servings do one get with just the wonder mold alone?

littlepinksocks, thanks for asking the questions here re wonder mold. i learned a lot, got a few tips since i'm still about to try my hands on using my wonder mold w/c i got last may
btw, your cinderella is a beauty

bobbie

The wondermold is a one mix pan (or so they say) and one mix makes an 8" cake so 20 servings.

And great job!! She came out beautiful!

thank you jkalman.

Thanks again, everyone! I did end up wimping out and using wilton (ick) fondant. I just didn't want to end up making MMF (or the Michelle Foster recipe) and end up realizing at 11 pm that the consistency was all wrong. (I have a toddler which means all my cake time is after she goes to sleep!)

I'm going to make some time in the next few weeks to experiment with making fondant - Cinderella turned a few heads at the office and it seems I may have a few orders to fill as a result! Wheeee!!!

WOW! Great job!

I didn't realize that was cake at first! Good job!