Hello, everyone! My friend asked me to make a ballet cake for her daughter's 4th birthday and I happily agreed! Then she sent me this picture....

http://susannah.typepad.com/photos/cake_gallery/cake1-2.html

I can only guess that this was made with a cricut? I am not sure. Does anyone know how I can make this cake or anything near it? I fear that I am not all that advanced and have basically no special equipment other than piping bags and a rolling pin.

My friend wants a very girly, very "ballet" cake but does not like to have the shoes on top. Instead, she wants to find a lovely figurine to put on top.

Any help you can give me would be much appreciated!

Thanks so much!

If it were me I would first practice making the little girl. You might find out it is not as difficult for you might think. The sides do look like cricut or a special mold. Personally I don't have a problem telling people no, I can't or don't want to do that.

I would simply tell her that you don't have the equipment to produce that cake but if she'd like to buy an electronic cutter you'd be happy to give it a go. I don't know if cricut (provo craft) has a cartridge with that particular design but it could be achived with the silhouette and make the cut software.

You could probably get some inexpensive molds at Michael's or AC Moore to get a similar look. They always have coupons online. As far as the figurine on top, there is a tutorial for a ballerina on lovely tutorials. Here is the link:http://www.lovelytutorials.com/forum/showthread.php?t=384
It might be easier than you think. Good luck

Thanks, guys!

The father of the little girl wants to buy a porcelain ballerina for the top so I don't need to worry about the girl.

I found the blog for the original baker and she talks about a new technique she was happy to use on this cake but does not mention what it is. Any clue?

What kind of molds might work?

I wonder if I could take her into some pretty scroll work I can pipe on... It's that ballerina on the side that will be a little trickier.

Thanks for the help, guys! Keep it coming!

How about stenciling the pattern around the cake?

You could google the ballerina image and make a copy. Use it as a template to cut the image in fondant. I do this a lot to make flowers since I don't & can't afford to buy all the cutters. It's a little time consuming but works.

I agree with Brenda, maybe try stencilling it? You could draw out the patterns by hand or on the computer, or find similar looking images online to use?

try looking for something similar on this stencil website under culinary stencils
http://www.designerstencils.com/Default.aspx