Coolest Dora the Explorer Birthday Cake

This Dora the Explorer Birthday Cake I made for my daughter’s second birthday. As many little girls, she is taken with Dora and since we bought her a Dora toddler bed for her big birthday, I made this cake as well. Since our older son has his birthday 7 days prior, I also made him a dinosaur cake so between the two I made them over two days.

For the base, I used 2 8″ round metal cake pans. I used a strawberry cake mix that was slightly moister than I probably should have because as soon as I started stacking cakes it settled slightly. Next time I will be sure to make my own heavier cake, possibly even pound. For the top I also used strawberry, only 6″ cake pans.

The pink and yellow frosting is made from homemade marshmallow fondant, left overnight to smooth further. I layered it with Crisco (which is the #1 shortening I recommend in frosting, also make sure to use pure cane sugar for best and smoothest results) and wrapped it in plastic wrap to stay fresh. I matched each cake with part of the Dora cake top, which magnetically danced (my daughter loves dancing).

I covered each double layered cake with my homemade buttercream frosting (also used a little between each to hold together layers) approx 1/4″ thick. This helps hold the fondant in place. Once the fondant was colored and rolled flat (no thinner than 1/8″, or it can begin to tear) I layered each over the ind. given cake, tucked, and cut off excess with a pizza cutter.

I carefully stacked the smaller pink cake on top of the yellow. The stars I made with homemade colored gum paste, and left to dry over the course of two days (made sure to put the toothpicks in as soon as I made) Backpack, map, and swiper were made with the fondant, as well as all the stars. I used different colored buttercream for the borders around the three bases, and surrounded the stage and 2-candle with star sprinkles.

My daughter was floored, and went crazy when she saw it.