Cool Homemade Dora the Explorer Cake

My little girl wanted a Dora the Explorer cake so what does a mommy do, grant her wish of course! I made her the typical cake using the Dora the Explorer cake pan, but then covered the entire cake in fondant. I also used fondant to create the details. She loved it. She would have loved it regardless of what it looked like.

For her personal cake to dive into, I made Backpack, which was my favorite. I found a picture online, printed it out on cardstock to create my pattern. I placed it on the 9×13 cake (cut in half and then stacked on top of each other to create the desired height) and cut around the pattern. I then had to free hand the rest. Making the map was favorite. My daughter even pulled out the map and ate it by itself. I hope you enjoy it. Being only my third cake that I have ever made, it has some mistakes, but we all need something to learn from. Enjoy.