The Barbie Bride Cake

I made this cake for my niece's bridal shower. This was my first attempt at using fondant, and it wasn't too bad. I had purchased a box of premade fondant at Michael's - Wilton, I believe. Other than it tastes like crap, it made a beautiful cake. I have a recipe for marshmallow fondant and plan to try that whenever life allows a little more time.

I will note that the actual cake was horrible. I used a marble pound cake recipe to give it a little more support for the fondant, and due to the cooking time needed for the Pampered Chef pyrex mixing bowl, the cake was a little too done. I will stick with my old recipes from now on.

The "how to" on this one.
I made the pound cake in the Pampered Chef pyrex mixing bowl. It had to cook for almost 1.5 hours, plus cooling time which was a long time. I crumbcoated with store bought vanilla icing.

I rolled the fondant larger than needed and placed over the iced cake, draping the bottom to look like folds in the dress. I did have to cut some pieces at the bottom to make it lay better. I then used an apple corer to remove the center of the cake so that I could place the Barbie. I used a real Barbie because I lucked up and found an actual bride barbie. She was wrapped tightly in Saran wrap. She was sporting a bouquet and bling on her left hand. ;oP

I used a #106 flower tip with the store bought vanilla icing and made the flowers on the fondant. The centers of the flowers were pearlized sprinkles. I "painted" the dress in an iridescent pearl dust mixed with a little vodka. The flower centers were painted with a pink pearl dust mixed with vodka to give them a little punch. I also did a horrible job on the waistline on the cake. It was about 1 a.m. when I got to this part, so I got a little shotty with my work. I should have made it prettier, but I broke down and rolled strips of fondant and wrapped her waist in fondant. I then painted this fondant with the pink pearl dust as well.

The back of the cake (see pic on bottom) was a replica of the back of my niece's dress with the pearl "buttons" all the way down to the train.

All in all, it was a relatively simple cake to make. I personally think it turned out beautifully. I was very proud of myself. With the flowers on the cake board, it made for pretty pics too.