My youngest child turns 3 in July I have had a plan for her birthday cake/cupcakes for months now. I wanted to duplicate her favorite blanket which has... get this 24 different patch like squares on it. So I was going to make a cupcake to match each square. And a small cake combining all the squares. Now she apparently has a mind of her own because for the past month or so she has been insisting she wants a Dora cake. IMO Dora is way overdone I wanted something unique and totally sweet. But... My DH says just do Dora. I could maybe do 1 Dora cupcake for her is this terrible???? I want to make her happy but I had a PLAN!!!

Oh and if anyone has any ideas to make Dora less overdone maybe some pics I have googled and googled and just get the same old.... Any ideas would also be greatly appreciated!

Oh I know all about that! LOL! My daughter is the same. I've had an idea for months and then she insists on something else!

You could probably combine the 2 themes together. with teh cupcakes, you cand o what you suggested of having each cupcake with the quilt designs and then one cupcake in the middle with dora.

For the cake you can have dora sitting on the quilt. Maybe look at some of the newer Dora pictures (like if you look at the coloring books they have dora in different clothes and different styles rather than the shorts. It's much cuter). Or you can do the easy way out and have Dora be the candle and still do the design you wanted.

Hope that helps!

luv2c_cultures: Thank you! I love the idea of her sitting on the quilt I would never of thought of that! My daughter wants princess Dora so it won't be the shorts one although I can't do fondant/gumpaste characters yet... So I have to find a topper in princess Dora.

She may change her mind between now and then. My grandson was set for months and months that he wanted a Toy Story cake. I was all ready to make the bed and daugher (his mom) was "this close" to buying the Toy Story pieces for it. 3 weeks before his birthday, Toy Story is out and he's into SPiderman.

(Is the blanket more important to her or to you? Being a mom, I understand the sentimentality, but this might be the type of cake she would appreciate later. We actually still have a square of the blanket my now-17-year-old carried around forever. You really can read a newspaper thru it. Making her a cake that looked like this blanket would have been a waste when she was 3. If I make it for her 19th birthday, I just know I'll get a big hug with some tears from her. And I know that's true because when we came across it during our move, she cried "ohhhhhhhh ..... my banky!!!!!!!!")

indydebi: I suppose your right it is sentimental to me she does pack it around everywhere it is her 'manky' I suppose a sweet sixteen or something would be cool I just can't imagine waiting that long to do my great idea!

Bless you I can see how much you want to do this for her but have to agree at 3 she wont appreciate it but at 16 I am sure she would love it.

She also has a plan in her mind of what she wants after all it is her birthday do you want to see a smile or a frown save your idea for another time.

Here is my take on Dora:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4465749301_472e2f1c9c_b.jpg

Thats does not make you a bad mom, however, you should make her what SHE wants lol, I was all ready to make a topsy turvey for my grandson and then he said he didnt want that grrrrrrr, so I didn't get to do that. I feel your pain, wanting to do what you think is cool.........but maybe you can do that another time?

You're not a "bad mom"...LOL...BUT do the cake that she wants. My grandson insisted on a Mario cake. I DID NOT want to do a Mario cake. I have never molded figures before and I didn't want to.

I uploaded my Mario cake Saturday morning so guess who won? But HE loved it and that's what is important.

On the other hand my granddaughter will be one on June 13th and I get to do her cake just like I want. I'm going to enjoy it because this first cake will probably be the only one she doesn't have a say so in. If she could express herself better I guarantee you that she would ask for an Elmo cake. I'm just glad that I don't have to do one of those.

Montrealconfections: Oh I am sure Dora it will be. I love your Dora cake!!! I don't think I am anywhere near talented enough to pull it off as much as I would love too. What is the top part made out of?? How in the world did you do it?!

mamawrobin: Amazing Mario cake BTW!!! I guess it shows flexibility if you can do things that just maybe don't inspire you... I did Elmo cupcake I just posted and the lady was VERY opposed to fondant decorations so she wanted Oreo cookie mouths jelly bean noses and marshmallow eyes. She said it would look more realistic!.... Um ... no. But I did it and she loved them so I guess the customer is always right and in this case it happens to be my 3 years old!

My daughters 6th birthday I had this princess on a bed with all sorts of cool stuff around. (princess and the pea type design) I was pretty excited abut it til I told her about it. I thought she'd be thrilled. "So what do you think?" I asked. "If you want to do that mom I guess it's ok." Not the reaction I was expecting. "Well? What kind of cake did you have in mind?" I inquired hoping it wasn't going to involve PVC pipe. "I wanna a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! If you can do that?"

Here's the cake she got.....and loved, I'm so glad I did what she wanted, she was thrilled (btw--it is still her favorite lunch)

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1249547

tinygoose: That cake is so cool! You are all so talented!

Thank you so much. I think Dora on the quilt will be precious, she'll love it!

Mamawrobin, your Mario cake is the coolest, and tinygoose, the pb&j cake is on my list of all-time favorites! It just goes to show that nobody's too young to know what they want -- and some of them have the good sense to know who to get it from, too! So, luvbuttercream, I'd go with Dora and make the niftiest Dora you know how -- your daughter will thank you for life and you'll save thousands of dollars in shrinks later on !

If they're old enough to express a choice, they're old enough to know what they want. The only person excited about that quilt is you! I agree...when she's older she'll love it!

Think of it as practice for later. Seriously.

My son graduates with his Associates in a couple of weeks. When he graduated high school, I really wanted him to go to a certain college. He didn't and I was okay with that b/c he really needed a smaller college than the one I wanted. Now he is going on for his Bachelors. Yup. He's still not interested in my choice and this time I disagree quite a lot with his choice. I give my opinion politely and keep my mouth shut after that. His choice, he has to live it, not me. My job is to help support his choice.

It stinks, but watcha gonna do?

Put the blanket idea in a file for later and give her Dora. Unfortunately.

I say you look at it as if you were making it for a paying customer. You might have your own ideas of what you would want to do, but the customer ultimately makes the decision of what they want

I agree Dora has been done to death, isn't it an interesting challenge to create something unique with such a popular theme. My Dora cake was actually pretty easy the skirt is a Barbie mold the topper is a hand cut decorated sugar cookie with satin bows on the shoulders I was told the little girl loved it.

Would you be able to make a Dora cake with the blanket wrapped around her? Or she could be carrying the blanket.