Make a cake that looks like her favorite pretend play costume pieces.
Make a custom three-dimensional princess-themed cake and adorn it with fondant, candy and sugar paste decorations. Make the cake in the shape of one of the guest of honor's favorite princess things, and let her help add the candy decorations. Many princess cake designs are easy to make and can be made days ahead of the party to allow plenty of time for any corrections. Does this Spark an idea?
Fairy-tale Castle
Turn a birthday cake into a fairy-tale castle. Make a two- or three-tier cake and cover the cake with buttercream icing in colors to coordinate with the party's color scheme. Decorate the outside edge of the bottom tier with candies or icing dots. Add lookout towers to the cake by covering four or five cake pillars with buttercream icing. Top each pillar with a pointed ice cream cone covered in a complementary colored icing. Press each pillar down into the tiers of the cake, down below the buttercream icing. Decorate the cake by adding icing windows and doors.
Pop-Up Fairy-tale Storybook
For a child who loves magical fairy-tale stories, make a birthday cake in the shape of an opened storybook with a fondant picture in the book popping up in the middle. To make the cake, bake a cake batter in a book-shaped cake pan. Cover the cake in a sheet of white fondant, and use a dull knife to make indents all along the sides of the cake to look like book pages. Decorate the top of the cake with a thin one-colored border, and decorate the inner edge of the border with a green icing vine covered with candy or sugar paste flowers. Choose an item to pop out from the book, such as a princess, a castle or a magic wand. Purchase a plastic figurine of the item to place on the cake, or make the item from fondant.
Princess Doll
Turn a child's favorite doll into a birthday cake with a three-dimensional princess doll cake. Bake a cake mix in a round, oven-safe bowl and turn it flat-side-down on a cake tray. This becomes the princess doll's skirt. Cover the cake with a thin layer of buttercream icing. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes, and then spread a thick second layer of buttercream icing on the cake. Create pleats or swirls in the skirt with an icing spatula, or add miniature candy or sugar paste flowers. Make a hole in the top center of the cake, and insert a favorite princess doll into the cake to waist level. Decorate the top of the doll with the same color buttercream icing to make the dress's bodice.
Tiara
Make a tiara-shaped cake for a little princess party using a tiara-shaped cake pan. Cover the entire cake in a layer of smooth buttercream icing, and decorate the edges of the cake with the same color icing using a pastry bag and star icing tip. Draw an inner outline of the crown and fill in the crown with the birthday child's favorite color. Decorate the crown with edible candy gems, sprinkles and shapes made from icing or fondant. For a larger party, make a round cake a little larger than the crown and decorate it with buttercream icing. Turn the tiara cake into a two-tier creation by placing the crown on top of the round cake.
Tags: buttercream icing, cake with, birthday cake, candy sugar, candy sugar paste, princess doll
