My cousin's wife asked me to do a cake for my twin niece's first birthday. I am doing a 3 tier strawberry shortcake themed party. The top tier will be a basket of stawberries, 2nd tier is a pink iced cake with a design around it, bottow tier will be stripes of coordinating colors. Problem is I want the charcater of strawberry shortcake and they are looking for a vintage Strawberry Shortcake not the more modern looking girl that is floating out there these days. ANy ideas, Is my only option to try to scultp a 3-d figure and if so, any pointers, examples people may have done? THis is just a favor for them but I would like to still give them what they are looking for.

Thanks!!

Have you looked on Ebay? I don't know how long you have until you need the cake, but you might be able to find some there. Do you have any family members that might still have their old Strawberry Shortcake dolls and would let you borrow them? There's also a website called strawberrycentral.com that sells the vintage dolls, but they're kinda expensive.

I did a strawberry shortcake for my niece and I found figurines on e-bay. That was about the only place that I could find them. It didn't cost me very much. I think maybe 7 or 8 dollars. All the stores carry is the new version.

Not sure of the difference in the old and the new. Please explain.

The old strawberry shortcake is shorter and a little more plump, has a round face. The new one is tall with long legs and looks more like a teenage strawberry shortcake. Personally I like the old version better but that's probably just because that's what I grew up with .

You can buy a birthday candle with the vintage image here:

http://shop.pattycakes.com/cake-decorating/Itemdesc.asp?CartId={446C1AA3-686F-42CE-8670-CFBE2603D5EA}&ic=2811%2D7040

You can buy the vintage figures here, but they're a little pricy:

http://vintage.strawberrycentral.com/vt/list/index.cfm?MC=142&C=445&SC=1640

You could PM the person who made this cake and find out where she got her topper:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1459409

Another suggestion I have is that you could do either a royal icing transfer of an image you/they like or a frozen buttercream transfer. It wouldn't be 3D, but I think it would still be cute. Here's an example of one:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1462029

Also, with the royal icing transfer, if you make the image smaller, you can attach a toothpick or cookie stick to the back, which then can be placed into the cake--making the image stand up. Here's a link to a tutorial if you'd like to try that:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=648450&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=15

(You just have to scroll down a little on page 2 of the forum discussion.)

Good luck with whatever you decide!

I found the candle from the cake I posted. It's on Amazon.com:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/dp/B000IN29U8/?tag=cakecentral-20:&tbnh=114&tbnw=114&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstrawberry%2Bshortcake%2Bcandle%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

I've done a couple of the vintage strawberry shortcake character- see my cakes. One I did in all buttercream and the other I did in fondant. I printed out her picture and just traced it. You could do make it out of fondant/gumpaste mixture and then place it somewhere on the cake.