A friend came to me and asked me to bake a cake for a little girl whose family was having a hard time financially. I wanted her cake to be something that would leave her in awe and give her memories for years to come. When I found out she loved Dora, I knew I could do something pretty creative.
Upon talking to the mom, I found out that they did not want the cake covered in fondant, I freaked out! I love working with fondant because I feel like I can be more creative! So I spent a week thinking it over and taking suggestions from friends. I finally came up with a cake …… a 6 layer, 2 tier waterfall birthday cake!
This cake was probably the hardest butter cream frosted cake I have ever make. I really had no idea what I was doing, only an image of what I wanted etched in my mind. I started by using my from scratch recipes and baked 6 layers in 2 different flavors. I used my homemade butter cream frosting between the layers. Stacking the layers proved to be a little challenging. I used plastic supports to support the top tier and notched the cake board slightly to accommodate where I was going to carve out the waterfall. After a crumb coat of butter cream I let the cake sit while I mixed up a big batch of green and blue frosting.
The next think I did was carve the side of the cake where the waterfall was going to be. As soon as I started carving I realized that I should have done this BEFORE I put on the crumb coat. Oh well, I worked it out and soon the cake began to take shape. I frosted the waterfall using the back of a spoon so it gave the water the illusion of ripples. I frosted the mountain side with my cake spatula, dipping it in hot water to frost the butter cream smooth after it had peaked.
I mixed up a batch of darker green frosting, used my grass tip and piped on grass between the tiers, along the pool of water on top of the cake and around the bottom layer of cake. Then I used a Wilton tip #3 and piped on vines and a leaf tip to pipe on leaves. The cake really started to look good and was ready for details. I used white frosting to make the water as it crashed against the bottom of the water fall and used tootsie rolls as rocks, randomly placing them on the cake board.
The final touch was making a blanket out of a rolled out air head candy and placing Dora and her accessories on the cake board. A few trees on the top by the pool of water, and the cake was ready to deliver!
Although I was not there to see the little girl’s face, I was told that she was in love with the cake and one little boy at her party said it was the best birthday cake he had ever had.
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