Cool Homemade Rapunzel Tower Cake

This year my daughter Chloe had a tall order for her 4th birthday cake. She fell in love with Disney’s newest princess, Rapunzel. After watching the movie with her several times I was fairly confident I could create her dream Rapunzel cake.

To start I first enlisted the help of my sister Kim to do the baking portion of the cake. She made two 12in. circular white cakes for the base. To add some flavor she also made a strawberry filling.

To tackle the tower we cut a wooden dowel and covered it in plastic wrap (to be food safe). We then drilled through the cakes base board and into the dowel holding it erect.

Next I filled the cakes and stacked them. After stacking I cut a hole through the cake and slid it down the dowel. Another small cake circle was then screwed into place atop the dowel for the top of the tower to rest on.

Next I packed rice cereal treat around the dowel to keep the tower light but edible. I then rolled out fondant for the bricks in the front. They were hand cut, textured, and painted to add realism. I added the fondant brick to the crispy treat with butter cream. Another sheet of tan fondant wrapped around the tower and brick to make it look aged. The top piece was also sculpted out of crispy cereal and covered in fondant to match.

I hand sculpted the Rapunzel and Pascal characters from fondant and hand painted their details with food coloring. I did the same for the lanterns that were suspended from wires surrounding the window.

Three colors of fondant were rolled out and cut by hand to make the shingles. Each painted with luster dust for a little added sparkle. They were then attached with more butter cream.

The characters were then put into place and the vines and flowers were added. Lastly the actual cake portion was iced and decorated. I did this last to keep the cake from getting messed up from the tower construction. I wish I could have put more time into the base of the cake but I ran out of time.

This cake took 13 hours of straight decorating to finish. It turned out pretty good for my first official birthday cake. Everyone at the party loved it especially my daughter Chloe!