welcome to howtocookthat, i'm ann reardonand today we are making a pretty ballerina themed cake and cupcakes to go with it. to make this cake you will need to make upone and a half times the sponge cake recipe (the recipe details are on my howtocookthat.netwebsite and the video on how to make sponge cake is there too, i'll link to that below)and bake that in 12 cupcake cases and two
how to make a turning board for dance, 8" round cake tins. once the cakes are cooled level them and thencut out the pieces shown on the template. now i'm making this cake to serve 20 if youwant it bigger just scale it up and use a bigger round cake tin or make more cupcakes.
for the cupcakes roll out some white fondantand then cut out heart shapes. now you can either use a heart cutter or youcan just use a knife and trace around a heart shape. place each one over a cardboard roll that'scovered with some non-stick baking paper and shape it so it curves around like the bodiceof a dress. these will take a couple of days to hardenso you can make them ahead of time. or if you're out of time, you can add tylosepowder to them and the fondant will dry out quicker. do the same with some pink fondant so thatyou have the two coloured dresses.
take a cake board and place a wooden skewerthrough the centre. add some frosting to the base of the board. this just keeps the cake from slipping, thenadd the first layer of cake. and we've made this layer one in two halvesso we could cut it all out of the two round cakes without wasting too much excess cake. top that with more frosting - and i am justusing my basic vanilla buttercream recipe - that's on the website for you too. then add the next layer of cake. and now the cake gets fatter here so we wantto add some support on those skinny levels
so that it will balance on top. so measure how tall the cake is and cut threecake pop sticks to size and poke them into the cake. they will just hold the cake board up. add some frosting, and then place the cakeboard on top, more frosting on that and then the next layer of cake. then we want more frosting and continue withthe next two layers of cake on top. now hold your template in front of the cakeand lining it up with the shoulders, just trim around the template.
down the side and across the top of the shoulderson both sides. then just use your knife to shave off a tinybit at the corners of the cuts you've just made just to make it smooth and round likethe waist of a ballerina. now add some frosting to the top and placea cupcake that you've cut the top off - and put it upside down for the neck. now you want to cover the whole thing in frostingso that there is no cake visible. then use a piece of acetate to smooth it outaround all of those curves and then place that in the fridge for about an hour. warm the chocolate buttercream and place ateaspoon full on top of each cupcake.
then using a piping tip like this, start atthe centre and pipe out to the edge and back in, turn, out in, turn, and keep doing thatthe whole way around the cupcake out and in to make the ballerina skirts. take the cake out of the fridge and then addsome fondant over the top smoothing it down with your hands. we are going to have the dress over the topof this so the fondant doesn't need to come all the way down to the cake board. just over the top part of it. this is like the manequins that dresses siton in the shops so you can make this part
any colour you want - just make sure it'sdifferent enough from your dress so you have a bit of contrast, that is why i made thisquite pale. roll out some fondant for your dress and cutaround the top following the line of the template and when you get to the edge, just let yourknife go straight across so that we have some for the back of the dress that we can wraparound. slightly dampen the back of the fondant andthen place it into place on the front of the cake. position the top where you want it then wraparound the rest around the back. at the back, squeeze it to together at thejoin and then use scissors to trim it off.
and using the scissors just helps to pinchit together. grab a ball of fondant and then just rub itgently to smooth out any imperfections or any spots where you've bumped it as you wereputting it on. roll some fondant so it's very thin and thengently make ruffles and add them down the side. i found using a cake pop stick really helpedwith this because it's just the right size for making those ruffles and also for pushingit so it attaches to the cake. then cut a strip of white and add it downover the join of the ruffle just to neaten that up on both sides.
then add more strips criss-crossing acrossthe front like laces. place the cake on top of your cake stand. and roll out some white again, very thin,and add it around the base of the cake so it completely covers the cake board and comesto the edge of your cake stand. once you have the first layer in place adda thinner strip, it doesn't need to go all the way to the cake, and place them aroundjust the edge just ruffling them as you go. so this is probably about an inch thick, sowe're not going all the way back so we use less fondant. once you're happy with the amount of layersof ruffles that you have, add another strip
of fondant over the top and this one doesneed to come all the way to the body so it makes it look like it is a full skirt. for the cupcakes, use some of the royal icingand pipe dots along the top of the heart. then pipe two lines coming down and then anotherline criss-crossing across the body so it matches the laces that are on the cake. for some variety you might also like to pipesome that are different using swirls, and you can just have fun wtih this and make ithowever you want. i suggest you try and make them symmetricalso it looks like they're supposed to be like that.
if you like you can also pipe some detailsalong the top of the dress there just to make it look pretty and also to bring it all togetherso it matches the cupcakes. add the hearts into the top of your cupcakesto make the mini ballerina dresses and add them into place on the cake stand and it'sparty time! subscribe to how to cook that for more crazy,sweet creations, click here for more cake ideas, here for the recipe and here for macaronsand sweet snacks this cake was requested by:dancers dream big it's pupzcraftomatic rachel dalisaylalita nurak
rubydoo 123mckenzie sandstrom jadeew lovleybrianna chavez
charlotteblack magic karly idsteinmorgan and more... put all your requests in the comments below,make it a great week and i'll see you on friday.
