Barbie Doll Birthday Cake

One of my best friends and I have known each other since grade 9, and have been through boyfriends, drama, high school, and even university together. In fact, we were roommates for two years. I'd do anything for this gal, and this year for her 22nd birthday, which just passed, what she wanted was a cake. There is a bakery in our home town called Hank's Pastries that makes a dutch cake, which is a sponge cake with vanilla custard filling and butter cream icing. This is the cake that Alisha wanted, and who am I to deny my bestie?

This was the perfect chance for me to use a cake pan I'd been itching to try - the Wonder Mold pan. I had wanted to try it but had no reason to buy it - until now. I knew she'd like it, even if it was a cake more geared towards a 6 year old. Once I bought the pan, and had figured out what the cake would look like, the next, and far more pressing issue, was figuring out a recipe to use. I searched the internet to find recipes that sounded similar to the Dutch cake the Alisha had requested, and even made a practice sponge cake for her to try to make sure I was on the right track.
This has to have been one of the smoothest projects I've done to date. The cake cooked nicely, my custard filling turned out, and the cake decorating even worked out pretty well.
Something to note - the deeper pans require longer cooking times, however you need to keep an eye on the cake and make sure that the top doesn't burn! With it being exposed to the heat so much longer, pay attention that it doesn't get darker than its supposed to.

Once the cake was made, I formed cylinders out of fondant to form the ripples under the skirt of the dress, before laying the pink fondant over the top. There were a few problem areas around the base of the cake because of the ruffles, but they were easily concealed with darker pink fondant ribbon. I also used a star tip to embellish the dress.
The trickiest part of this whole thing may have been attaching the bodice of the dress to the doll. It took me a few tries, but it stayed in place eventually. I love when these things work out!
When the time came to give her the cake, we spent the day cozied under blankets having a Harry Potter marathon and eating cake. Doesn't get much better.