Surprise Your Daughter with a Doll Cake: 10 Visually Stunning Delicious Creations and Tips on How to Make Cake Doll!

Surprise Your Daughter with a Doll Cake: 10 Visually Stunning Delicious Creations and Tips on How to Make Cake Doll!

Making a cake for your child is not difficult, but making it memorable for them is a difficult task. While the boys will be happy with any reference to a superhero, your little princess will only be pleased by a beautiful doll cake. These cakes are the most tricky and if done wrong, can turn out to be disastrous. No need to pay an arm or a leg to any baker for it, as we can show you how to make that easily yourself!

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Doll Cake Base

The decoration of the cake is the key, when it comes to doll cakes. Making the dressing with whipped cream or buttercream or fondant, to look almost real is the real challenge. But you cannot miss the cake base too. A good cake makes a perfect base for a stunning doll figure.

Tender White Cake

A tender and moist cake that is not as fluffy as the others, but perfect to shape for a doll cake. The vanilla and almond flavours are most reminiscent of childhood memories.

Ingredients

  • King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour - 2 ¾ cups
  • Sugar - 1 ⅔ cups (Superfine)
  • Unsalted Butter - 12 tbsp (softened)
  • Whole Milk or Full-Fat Vanilla Yoghurt - 1 cup
  • Eggs - 1 Large (room temperature)
  • Egg Whites - 4 Large (room temperature)
  • Salt - 3/ tsp
  • Baking Powder - 1 tbsp
  • Vanilla Extract - 2 tsp
  • Almond Extract - 1 tsp

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare 2 round pans, either 8” x 2” or 9”x2” pans. Grease and flour the pans. You can also line with parchment paper and grease the paper.
  • Blend all the dry ingredients in a mixer on slow speed. Then add the softened butter to the mix and keep going until crumbled evenly. Depending on the granulation of the sugar and the temperature of the butter, it might even end up as a paste.
  • Add the egg whites one by one, beating all the while. Finally, add the whole egg. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl after each addition.
  • Mix the milk or yoghurt, almond extract and milk extract separately. Add to the cake batter 1/3rd at a time, beating after each addition. Again, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
  • Pour the batter equally in two pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before assembling.

Sponge Cake

Ingredients

  • Cake Flour - 1 cup (sifted)
  • White Sugar - 1 cup (granulated)
  • Baking Powder - ¼ tsp
  • Salt - ¼ tsp
  • Eggs - 6 Large
  • Cream of Tartar - ¾ tsp
  • Lemon Zest
  • Pure Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
  • Water - 2 tbsp

Instructions
  • Preheat the oven to 350°F. You’ll need two 10” tube pan at the ready.
  • Separate the eggs when cold and place them in different bowls. Cover with cling wrap and bring it to room temperature.
  • Whisk the sifted flour along with the baking powder and salt.
  • Beat the egg yolks and ⅔ cup of sugar in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on high speed until they are thick and fluffy. Add vanilla extract, lemon zest and water; beat again and set aside.
  • Change to a whisk attachment and beat the egg whites until foamy. Then add in the cream of tartar and whisk again until soft peaks form. Put in ⅓ cup of sugar and whisk until stiff peaks.
  • Sift the flour mixture and add to the egg yolk, ⅓ cup at a time. Fold in quickly.
  • Add in the egg white mixture little by little and fold everything until incorporated.
  • Pour the batter equally in the 2 tube pans and bake for 28-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes clean.
  • Cool completely before unmoulding.

Chocolate Cake

A rich yet light and airy chocolate cake for those chocolate fanatics out there.

Ingredients

  • Plain Flour - 2 cups
  • Cocoa - ⅔ cup
  • Caster Sugar - 1 ½ cups
  • Eggs - 2
  • Vanilla - 2-3 tsp
  • Milk - 1 ½ cups
  • Salt - 1 tsp
  • Baking Soda - 1 ½ tsp

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 round pans measuring 20 cm. Cream your butter and sugar.
  • Add in the eggs, milk, vanilla and beat. Mix in the dry ingredients and beat for a few minutes until smooth.
  • Transfer the batter to the round pans and bake for an hour.
  • Cool completely before unmolding.

Tip: For a dairy-free option, switch your butter for nuttelex and milk for coconut milk.

Delicious And Visually Stunning Doll Cakes

Ever thought about surprising your little girl with a princess cake or a barbie cake? Doll cakes have always been a much loved birthday cake for girls. Make their dream come true with a cake of their choice from our collection. Use any recipe from above for the cake base.

Barbie Doll Cake

The Barbie Doll Cake from Imperfect Women uses a bundt pan for the bottom layer, pyrex bowl for the middle layer and a cupcake for the top layer.

Ingredients

  • Unsalted Butter - 14 tbsp
  • Confectioner’s Sugar - 14 tbsp (sifted)
  • Cream Cheese - 2 ounce
  • Pure Vanilla Extract - ¾ tsp
  • Food Colouring

Instructions

  • Cream the cheese and butter. Mix in the sugar and vanilla. Whip until fluffy. Add food colouring of your choice drop by drop until you arrive at the desired colour. Your frosting is ready.
  • Place a few drops of frosting to the cake stand to glue the cake to the stand.
  • Cut a hole in the middle of the cake to fit the barbie in. Stack the cakes on the stand one by one and place the barbie. For the cupcake. You can cut it into two and glue it around the barbie using the frosting.
  • Crumb coat the barbie and stick it in the fridge for an hour.
  • Attach a star tip to the frosting bag and start frosting. Start with the top and add little stars to make the barbie’s skirt. Go row by row. Finish one row completely before starting on the next.
  • Offset the rows for better coverage.

Tip: Marshmallow Flowers: For a more stunning visual of the skirt add marshmallow flowers. Cut a marshmallow flower into two. Glue the ends using the frosting to make a flower. Decorate the marshmallow petals using coloured sugar.

Butter Cream Princess Cake

Emily from HalfScratched has a wonderful recipe for a doll cake with buttercream frosting. The cake is baked in a 2-quart ovenproof Pyrex glass mixing bowl.

Ingredients

  • Confectioners' Sugar - 3 cups
  • Butter - 1 cup
  • Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
  • Whipping Cream - 1 - 2 tsp

Instructions

  • Whisk together sugar and butter on low speed in a standing mixer. When it is well blended, beat on medium speed for another 3 minutes.
  • Mix in the vanilla extract and whipping cream and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Add more cream if needed. Finally, add drops of food colouring for your choice until you have the colour you need.
  • Place the cake so that the wide part is set down. Scoop the insides of the cake to make space for the barbie. Place a saran-wrapped barbie inside.
  • Paint the frosting over the cake with rough strokes. Do not smoothen it out.
  • You can further adorn with sprinkles, silver dragées or any other colour of your choice. Line the top of the skirt with silver dragées.

Fondant Princess Cake

Cakes covered with light fluffy frosting are delicious but have you ever tried fondants? Sara from Mumturnedmom has a delicious princess cake baked in round pans and a bundt pan. Different pans give you a chance to have layers with different flavours.

Ingredients

  • Buttercream Frosting
  • Fondant
  • Decorations (flowers/candies or similar)
  • Icing
Instructions
  • Use a shot glass or similar to cut out a circle for the barbie to fit in. Layer your cakes with buttercream frosting in between. The bundt cake goes on the top.
  • Dirty ice the cake using buttercream. Do it in sections so that the fondants can be placed before the frosting is dry.
  • Place the fondants on the cake with white being on the front centre and coloured fondants added towards the side and the back of the skirt. Different colours and the sectioned fondants give you an appearance of the fabric.
  • Cut out cardboard in the shape of a circle with a slit and a hole small enough to fit the barbie’s legs. Use a glass or a dish for guidance.
  • Using the same glass, cut out a circle of fondant with a bigger diameter. Place the fondant over the cardboard and both of them on the barbie for stabilization. Cling wrap the barbie’s legs and place her in the centre.
  • Decorate the skirt with decoration flowers. Use icing to stick the flowers.

Tinkerbell Pinata Cake

Chocolate Tinkerbell Cake with some surprises for the birthday girl seems out of the world, doesn't it? Amy from BecomingBettiBaker has this sinfully delicious chocolate cake baked in large cupcake pans.

Ingredients

  • Butter - 250 grams
  • Icing sugar - 5 cups
  • Peppermint Flavouring - 2 tsp
  • Green Food Colour
  • Fondant
  • Leaf Cutter
  • Decoration Flowers

Instructions

  • Whip the butter until it lightens up. Add in the icing sugar ½ cup at a time. Keep an eye out for consistency.
  • Add the colour and the flavour and whisk it for another 5 minutes. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl in between.
  • Add the colour to the fondant and knead. Keep kneading until the colour is evenly spread out.
  • Dust the rolling surface with some cornflour and spread the fondant evenly. Using the leaf cutter, cut out the leaf shapes and store them in a greaseproof paper.
  • Trim down the well-cooked part of the cake to create a flat surface. Slice the bottom part of the cupcake to create a nice flat circle. Cut out a circle in the middle for Tinkerbell to fit in.
  • Assemble the cake with the widest cake in the bottom with the circumference decreasing as you stack more. Place Tinkerbell in the middle along with some surprises.
  • Start decorating the cake with a crumb coat and set it in the fridge for about an hour.
  • After an hour, paint the cake with a thick coat of buttercream. Add the fondant leaves next with each leaf overlapping the next for complete coverage. Add some flowers for decoration on the skirt.

Cinderella Doll Cake

A Cinderella cake is perfect for a princess celebrating her birthday. Lisa from GoodFood Shared has this awesome recipe that she bakes in Pyrex bowls.

Ingredients

  • Icing sugar - 500g (sifted)
  • Soft Margarine or Butter - 250g (room temperature)
  • White Fondant - 500g
  • White Ready to Roll Icing - 50g
  • Vanilla Extract - 2 tsp
  • Warm Water - 2-3 tsp
  • Blue food colouring
  • Icing sugar for dusting

Instructions

  • Mix icing sugar, butter, vanilla and warm water in an electric mixer. Start at a low speed and increase. Keep beating until the mixture is light and fluffy. Your frosting is ready.
  • For your fondant, knead the white fondant until soft on a flat surface dusted with icing sugar. Add drops of the food colouring to the fondant and knead. Keep going until the food colouring is evenly mixed. Cover it with cling film.
  • Roll a small amount of fondant and cut a bodice out of it. With water as glue, stick the bodice to the doll. Make small flowers using a plunger and stick them on to the seam of the bodice.
  • Fashion straps the same way, and glue them on. Using the doll’s arms, prop them up and let it dry overnight.
  • Trim the uneven sides of the cake and cut out a hole for the doll to fit in. Assemble the cakes over one another.
  • Stick the doll to a board with buttercream. Spread the frosting over the cake until you get an even surface for the fondant to sit on. Smoothen it out and let it sit in the fridge for 20 min.
  • Do a second layer of buttercream the same way and refrigerate again.
  • Knead the ready to roll icing until soft and roll it smooth. Using a frill cutter, cut out a frill for the skirt and attach to the bottom of the cake. Let it sit for about 20 min to firm up.
  • Dust a flat surface with icing sugar and roll out the blue fondant. Smoothen it with a cake polisher.
  • Lay it over the cake such that the frills are visible underneath. Cut out a circle for the doll to fit in.
  • Roll out the rest of the fondant and cut two baby bib shapes and drape it on both sides of the doll using water as glue.
  • Make plunger flowers with the rest of the fondant and let it firm up. Glue them to the waist and wherever needed with water.

Easy Doll Cake

A simple cake yet so divine that you simply need to try it. Priyanka from TerraceKitchen bakes the cake traditionally in round pans which she then trims to shape. Alternatively, you can also use a doll cake pan by Wilton for the same purpose.

Ingredients

  • Water - ½ cup
  • Sugar - 4 tbsp
  • Vanilla Essence
  • Icing Sugar - 2 cup
  • Unsalted Butter - ½ cup
  • Milk - 2 tbsp
  • Whipping Cream - ½ litre
  • Food Colour - blue
  • Piping Nozzles No. 336 104 and 14
  • Silver Dragees

Instructions

  • Mix the icing sugar, butter and milk to make the buttercream frosting.
  • Make a simple syrup by dissolving sugar in water and adding a few drops of vanilla essence.
  • Place some buttercream on the cake board and place a layer of cake on it. Top it with the syrup and more buttercream. Repeat the same process with the layers of cake.
  • With the last layer of cake skin the frosting and insert four straws to stabilize it.
  • Trim the cake to form the doll’s skirt. Apply a layer of buttercream and refrigerate it for about 30 min.
  • Divide the whipped cream into 4 parts. Mix your colour of choice in the other three parts to obtain varying shades.
  • Start with the white whipped cream and smooth it over the cake.
  • Use the medium blue whipped cream and create ruffles at the bottom of the skirt with nozzle # 10.
  • Start piping flowers with nozzle # 336 and the darkest blue. After 2 layers shift to the medium blue and then to the lightest blue after 2 more layers. For the last two layers use white cream.
  • Pipe ruffles with nozzle # 10 where the doll meets the doll’s waist.
  • For the bodice pipe small flowers with nozzle # 14 and medium blue. Place silver dragees on every flower as an added touch.

Elsa Doll Cake

For all the Frozen fans out there is the Elsa cake by Lacey Todd of Lacey Jakes Cakes. With a chocolate cake base baked in a Wilton doll cake pan and an 8” round cake pan, assembled and decorated with fondants, the creation is stunning.

Ingredients

  • Fondant (Teal)
  • Fondant (Light Teal)
  • Water
  • Frosting - Your Choice
  • Piping gel

Instructions

  • Roll out a strip of fondant and fashion a bodice out of it. Use water as glue to glue it on the doll. Smooth out the seams. Set it out to dry for at least a day.
  • Assemble and frost the cake with the frosting of your choice. You can also cut the top layer in half and add frosting.
  • Cut a notch in the front of the cake for the doll to stand in. Smooth out the sharp angles and use the removed parts to fill in the back of the cake.
  • Once the cake base is complete, do a crumb coat to set it in and cover it with a light teal fondant.
  • Attach the doll to the cake with a small piece of wire wrapped around one leg and pushed into the cake. Hold her foot in place with a small piece of fondant.
  • Roll out lighter coloured fondant and cut it into strips. Pleat each strip and attach it to the cake with piping gel. Trim the bottom according to

Different Pans That Can be Used

As much difficult as it looks to fashion the cake’s base, it need not be so. You can choose one of the below pans for an easier alternative. Use as it is, or mix and match depending on your cake size and your needs.

  • Wonder Mold Doll Cake Pan Set - A single shot cake pan for a doll cake measuring 8 in. dia. x 5 in, the set contains a doll pick too in case you do not want to go with a doll or a barbie. Buy it from Wilton for $20.79 or Rs. 1570.
  • Kugelhopf Pan - Not essentially a doll cake pan, the shape renders beautifully for making doll cakes. Made of heavy-duty carbon steel, it can multitask as your bundt pan too. Priced at Rs. 190, it is available to buy at Bakewala.
  • Bundt Pan Cake Tin Mould - Though you cannot use the bundt pan alone for doll cakes, you can use it in combination with round cake pans for taller cakes requiring more quantity. It is available for Rs. 2126 at Order2India.
  • Savor Living Angel Cake Pan - Much like the Bundt pan, the angel cake pan can multitask as your doll cake pan along with a couple of round cake pans too. Buy it from Ubuy for Rs. 3751.

Tips to Make a Good Doll Cake

A barbie cake or a princess cake is every little girl’s birthday dream. While the cake itself looks difficult to achieve, with the help of our tips you can create the most beautiful of cakes.

  • Always check the height of the doll against the pan. You can either trim the height or add more with a sheet cake or a round cake.
  • If you do not have of the necessary pans, you can substitute with Pyrex bowls in a pinch. But ensure they are oven-proof
  • Go for a doll pick as the last option. A doll matching the theme of the cake would work better and the birthday girl gets a doll to play.
  • Get ballerina barbies if possible since they have a bodice attached. You need not worry about piping a bodice for the doll.
  • Wrap the legs waist down and the hair of the barbie with cling wrap to protect them from getting dirty when icing. Remove the wrap on the hair once you are done decorating the doll.
Writer
Sunandha Wilis
After spending 12 years in the hectic corporate world, Sunandha quit the industry to follow her passion for writing. She enjoys writing on a variety of subjects including travel, health, beauty, fashion and technology. Apart from writing she also dons the hat of an editor from time to time. Her time off is spent listening to music and wrestling with her boys.
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How to Store a Tall Doll Cake Properly?

You can leave the cake on the counter for a few hours. Better cover it with a box, if you have little kids around. If you plan to make the cake a day in advance, it is better to store different layers of cake separately in a box, in the refrigerator. Another way is to complete the figure along with the icing, but leave the application of the fondant to be done just before the event!