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You are here: Home / Recipe Ideas / How To Easily Make A Princess Cake Like A Pro

How To Easily Make A Princess Cake Like A Pro

Recipe Ideas

2 May
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Learn how to make an easy Princess cake like a pro. There is nothing quite like a homemade birthday cake, and this Princess Barbie cake is incredibly simple to make. 

With a splash of pink, and easy decoration, this will be your daughter’s favorite birthday cake ever. 

She will be guaranteed to love it. A little girl can’t grow up without having one doll cake in her lifetime.

How To Easily Make A Princess Cake

Related articles:

  • How To Throw The Best Princess Birthday Party
  • Princess Tea Party

Every little girl has to have a princess cake at least once in their lifetime. This is the kind of cake that will make you a hero.

Your daughter is going to simply be amazed.

You may be thinking that you simply don’t have the skills to make anything as fancy as a princess cake.

I’m here to tell you that YOU can totally do this if you want to.

Despite these doll cakes looking like they can only be made by the pro’s, they are actually easier than you think.

I made my first ever Princess cake for my daughter’s 5th birthday and she still says it was her favorite cake ever.

Trust me when I say, if I can make it, you totally can too.

Easy Princess Cake

Supplies You Will Need To Make Your Princess Cake

  • Dolly Varden Cake Pan
  • 1kg bag of mud cake mix
  • Doll Pick
  • Bag of ganache

The first thing I recommend you do is to purchase a packet cake mix.

Before you start doubting yourself, there is NO shame in doing this. More often than not, the professionals will use a packet mix, so why shouldn’t you!

A mud cake mix will hold it’s shape perfectly, so this is what I suggest you use for the doll cake. You can pick up the bag from your local cake supplies store.

You will also need a Dolly Varden cake pan, which you can either buy or hire from your local cake suppliers.

The last essential item is a dolly pick to place on top of the cake.

If you really want to, you could purchase a cheaper barbie doll and take off one of the legs, but you would have to be extra careful to ensure that the plastic of the doll does not touch the cake.

You would need to wrap the bottom of the barbie doll in cling film to ensure that no nasty’s from the doll plastic go into your  cake.

A much safer option (and for only a few dollars more), it makes much more sense to purchase the dolly pick.

Decorating the princess cake can be undertaken with fondant or butter cream.  

This tutorial will be using buttercream,  but if you wish to try your skills with fondant you might like to check out this tutorial.

How To Make A Princess Cake Step By Step

Follow these 9 steps to create the perfect doll, Barbie or Princess cake.

Step 1: Bake The Cake

Bake your cake according to the instructions on the packet. Leave to cool and then place in the freezer over night.

If you need to bake the cake ahead of time, it will be fine to leave in the freezer for a few days. Freezing the cake will make it easier for you to decorate.

Allow approximately 2-3 hours for the cake to thaw before you start decorating it.

Step 2: Slice The Cake Into 3 Pieces

Slice the cake into 3 pieces.  

You could slice into 2, but I think this makes the cake still a bit too thick, and besides, it’s nice to have an extra layer of ganache to enjoy.

Cut the doll cake into 3 slices

Step 3: Spread Layers Of Ganache

Spread a thick layer of ganache between the cake layers and place the pieces back together.

Spread ganache in between the cake layers

How Easy Is It To Decorate A Cake At Home?

Now we come to the fun part. Decorating your Princess cake.

Despite it looking quite complicated to decorate a doll cake, don’t despair because it’s really not that bad.

Follow these steps to walk you through the entire process easily.

Step 4: Cover The Cake With Buttercream

The first thing you need to do is cover the entire Princess cake with buttercream.

Tip: Spread a thin layer of butter cream over the entire cake and then place into the fridge to harden. This is the crumb layer.  You will be able to see cake crumbs in the cream, but this will all be covered with the second layer.

Once the cream feels hard on the cake, place the second layer of butter cream on top, and smooth down as best as you can.

This layer of cream should sit on the cake easily, with the hardened cream underneath.

Cover the doll cake with butter icing

Step 5: Decorate Your Doll Pick

The doll pick can either be covered with buttercream or with a little bit of fondant. I used fondant because I had some left over after making some princess crown cupcakes.

I literally placed the fondant over the doll and smoothed into shape.

Use a small amount of Tylose powder to ensure the fondant hardens.

Cover doll with fondant bodice

Step 6: Add The Doll Pick To The Cake

Place your dolly pick into the top of the cake.

Press down firmly until she sits nicely on the top of the cake.

Sit the doll in the top of the cake

Step 7: Decorate The Body Of The Cake

Decorate the area when the dolly meets the cake, to cover up any gaps. This also helps to create some nice detail in the dress.

I used some sugar flowers which added some pretty detail but also filled the gap between the doll and the cake perfectly.

It is a good idea to draw the detail on the dress before you start to decorate.

This can be done using a cake decorating implement, but if you don’t have one, a blunt knife will suffice.

Draw lines of pattern on the dress

Step 8: Decorate The Princess Dress

Place the dress decoration over the sections that you have previously marked out.

I used little sugar beads and mixed up the pink and silver to make them stand out.

Add bead decoration to the front of the dress

Step 7: Add The Sparkle

For some extra shine, I placed some pink sugar crystals on the front of the dress. It wouldn’t be a Princess dress without sparkle would it!

Gently use your finger to make it stick. Don’t worry about all the extra crystals that fall as you can easily clean those up afterwards.

Add sugar crystals to the front of the dress
Princess dress decoration

Step 8: Decorate The Back Of The Dress

With the front completed it is time to decorate the back.

Once again I used some sugar pearls to create a detail of the dress, with a little bow at the back.

Back of dress detail
Top of Princess dress decoration

Step 9: The Final Touch

Finish off by putting a little tiara in the hair and your Princess cake is complete.

Pink Princess Cake

The Birthday Cake You Won’t Want To Cut

The only problem I find when I make a cake that I am really proud of, is that I don’t want to cut it. It seems a shame after all that hard work doesn’t it!

But cut it we did, and it looked pretty awesome on the inside too.

If your child likes more flavors than just chocolate, you could make the ganache layers look so pretty, but my daughter is obsessed with chocolate, so brown, brown and brown it had to be!

Back of the barbie cake

You can really have a lot of fun with the decorating of this Princess cake and change up the colors as you wish.

This was the first time I had made this cake and I think it turned out pretty well.

This is also me with zero cake decorating skills, so if you even have the slightest skill, yours is going to look even better than this.

But what you can be sure of is that this is definitely a cake that you can make and your daughter is going to absolutely love it.

Give it a try, you might even surprise yourself.

How to make a Princess cake

Need some more recipe ideas? Check out our entire range of party food ideas that are perfect for the kids and adults too. There are plenty of homemade birthday cakes, cupcakes, cookies, chocolate popcorn and other delicious recipes that guests will all love.

Let’s keep in touch. Did you love the easy Princess cake tutorial? Sign up to the newsletter to be kept updated with lots more easy recipes, party ideas and printable’s for the kids. See you there.

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About Catherine Holt

Catherine Holt is the founder of Smart Party Planning. She is a stay at home mum with a passion for celebrating life’s little moments, with creative yet budget friendly ideas. Catherine often has a camera in hand capturing everyday events and is a self obsessed chocoholic! She loves connecting with other mum's on the blog and sharing party planning tips and tricks. Get all the answers to every aspect of party planning with her eBook today! If you want to hold a party with that ‘wow’ factor and have it tailored to the person you’re holding it for then this eBook is for you. Let Catherine take the stress and headache out of organizing your next party or event.

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Hi there, I'm Catherine. I'm a wife, mother of two and I love to celebrate life's little moments.

Welcome to Smart Party Planning where I provide easy ideas that every mom can implement regardless of baking or crafting skills. Simplicity is the name of the game. Read More…

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