Hi all,

my daughter has her 5th birthday party coming up in 8 weeks, and she has asked me to make a Frozen themed cake for her. I have an idea in my head about what I want it to look like (round, 2 tiered, fondant covered, white chocolate mud cake with white chocolate ganache) but the catch is that I have never decorated a cake before, other than the "slap enough icing over the top to cover the burnt cake underneath" method (lol, im exaggerating... Maybe lol).

So, I'm wondering if 8 weeks is enough to give myself a crash course (YouTube) in making fancy cakes, and what is the cheapest and best way to go about practicing techniques and whatnot, to establish some sort of reasonable competency? I'd rather not have to make a bunch of cakes just to decorate and throw away. None of us actually eat cake, so there would be a lot of waste. Do you think I'm being too ambitious? I really have zero baking experience, but it looks like fun to do and would love the satisfaction of creating something so beautiful.

Thanks!

It is definitely ambitious but as long as you keep in mind you are doing it for your daughter and the fun experience you can enjoy the process!  Are you at least crafty?  Watch lots of videos, use the search function here and ask questions. You could practice icing and fondanting an upside down pot, when you're done, peel and scrape and try again. I salute your sense of adventure :)  Good luck!

Here's the thing...a 5 yr old will love anything you make as long as it has snowflakes and a princess on it. Don't worry about it too much, you don't need to make a professional-looking cake! 

I'd keep it simple so that you don't have too much stress about it. Why not just use the white chocolate ganache and ice the cake with it, but do it in a  rough-iced way so that it looks like snow? Then you could put some Frozen figurines from a toy store on it and use some gumpaste snowflakes, that you could easily make yourself. Your daughter could keep the toys after the party so she would like that. You could use white ganache and maybe do some in a light blue to put on the bottom half of the cake so that it goes along with the Frozen blue/white theme. Maybe use some edible glitter to give it some sparkle (NOT disco dust, that's plastic.) Keep it simple and don't kill yourself over it, your daughter will be happy with whatever you do.

Thank you, and yes, you're right, she will love it regardless. I do tend to jump right in the deep end when trying something new. I'm also a perfectionist with an "all or nothing" mentality that no matter how hard I try, I just can't switch off. It's a personality flaw.

Anyway, thanks for the ideas! I've got a fair bit of time up my sleeves to plan. Maybe I can come up with something more achievable, but just as pretty.

Heres my first question: How long before the event can I begin the process? I hope to have it done the day before as the party is an AM start and will have to be super organised as I'm doing the whole party by myself :/ I need to come up with a timeline or something to not stress myself out too much with the whole thing (I've never thrown a party before)

Type some of those search terms into the forum search and you'll find some really good tips on freezing cakes and decorating before or after thawing, also freezing with ganache on it or off. Good luck and be sure to come back and post a photo!

You can do lots ahead of time - even bake now:)  Cakes, well wrapped in plastic can be frozen and it will *improve* the moistness and taste.  If you go with gumpaste or fondant snowflakes, they can be made now and kept in a covered (not air tight) box in a cool dark  place.    And it is best to have the cake finished at least the day before so if anything goes wrong there is time to repair it.  A finished cake will remain fresh up to 3 days at room temp.

I did this in april for my little cousin. Except I cheated when it came to the fondant part. I got aqua blue chocolate melts, and poured it onto the cake. Of course, now I have the stuff to actually smooth icing, and I had just 2 days notice back then. 

It's not too hard. I didn't do the edible snowflake thing. Instead, I used these tiny 1 and 2 inch clear snowflake mini tree ornamentsI had. Used the clear/white larger sprinkles, and used fluffy white icing as snowfall. It was crazy and unorganized, but since her mother had never baked their birthday cakes, or really had a birthday party, my little cousin went plumb dumb, she was so excited lol