Frozen Princess Cake Elsa

The Frozen Elsa cake! YAY!

This was probably my biggest challenge of all my Princess cakes (see also Merida, Rapunzel and Tiana), but she and Anna turned out pretty great!

Out of all my cakes this is the one I wish I had more time on, the one I’d consider doing again just to get ALL that I want done.  Anyone else doing a Frozen party this year?

There was never a question about which dress to do, but the question was HOW to do it!  It’s a slinky little number, really no room for cake, so of course the skirt needed to be much fuller so there was something to eat.  BUT to give the illusion of slinkiness (is that a word) I went as A line as I could with one deep carved “ripple” to give the illusion of the slit.

Start with a 12 inch Elsa doll (sorry I didn’t have one when I started working on the cakes – they are HARD to find), a Wonder Mold cake and a second cake, an 8 inch round.  The wonder mold cake by itself isn’t tall enough for the dolls legs.  My chocolate cake is very DENSE, which is best for carving, but it tends to shrink a bit too, making it even SHORTER.  So the extra height is necessary (unless you tear the dolls legs off)

Use Ganache to stick the cake layers together.  Then wrap the dolls legs in plastic…

1. to keep their legs together do they don’t separate while going into the cake
2. keep the cake food safe, and the doll clean.

Then stick the doll into the cake.  I cut a small hole into the cake first to guide the legs. I like to put the doll in BEFORE carving the skirt usually, but I didn’t get the doll until later and needed to get started.  Nice sharp angle to the carving, not a full skirt, and one DEEP carved area where the right leg slit would be.

Now frost the cake with ganache (to keep it moist, don’t let it sit out).  Once I finally got the doll and stuck her in I was able to add the ganache around the hips to bring it cleanly into the dolls waist.  Again working with ganache is amazing, once it sets you can rub over any part that’s not smooth with your finger and “melt” it smooth.

Now Elsa’s dress is ombre, it starts super light blue and gets darker at the bottom so for the under skirt I used a blue fondant slightly darker.

Next up the under shirt.  On Elsa it’s sheer, but I can’t really create sheer fondant.  So I used a REALLY light blue, almost white and rolled it SUPER thin with my pasta roller.  To get it this thin it needs to be stronger than just fondant so I mix fondant and gumpaste together.

Paint the back with clear vanilla (or vodka, it’s cheaper) this makes it tacky so it will stick to the doll.  Make sure the arms are where you want them, then lay it over the dolls front, neck and arms.  Cut away what you don’t need and wrap the gumpaste/fondant around the arms, cutting where they meet on the underside.  And wrap it around her front and back.  Cut a clean shoulder line around.

Next up roll out light blue fondant, paint it with vanilla/vodka and cover the bodice and top of the skirt with a lighter blue.  Cut the back and bodice area princess style.  Next I used the back of my knife to create cutlines all down the bodice.  Trying to give it the icy, crystalized look her dress has.  I cut the bottom of the light blue area ragged.

I wish I had done one other layer between the two blues to extend the ombre look a bit more.

Next up the addition of luster dust.  This is what’s going to give the overall dress they shiny, icy look.  I used a dark blue along the bottom to help with the ombre effect and Antique Silk all over.  If you just brush it on dry it will add a bit of shine, if you keep brushing it it will get glossy and smooth.

I brushed it over the top of the dark blue and over the entire bodice.  If you get the fondant wet first it will collect and stick even stronger.  So I painted swoops on her sleeves so when I brushed over them it stuck even stronger in those areas, of course it doesn’t show up in the pictures, like at ALL! GAH

Now for the CAPE!  I debated rolling out gumpaste super thin like the sleeves, but thought it would still look to heavy.  I thought about not using anything edible, like using netting and adding fondant snowflakes… BUT I like adding only edible materials.  So I decided to try edible wafer paper.

It’s not sheer but it’s super thin.  Anyway, you can see it has a dull side and a glossy side.  Do NOT get the glossy side wet, it will shrivel badly, you want to work with the rough/dull side.  Cut it in the shape you want first, then add water to just the top.  I added clear vanilla/vodka to the back of the dress to make it tacky/sticky.

now to attach it! Try not to rip it (buy extra sheets, I did use 2, a practice one and a final one.  You can see it did rip a bit… But I the end I was pleased.

Next I  used my steamer to steam the cape bottom and as it got moist it curled up the edges!  LOVE! looks like it’s floating.  Then I used pearl luster dust and brushed it over the cape to get it a shiny.  I wanted to paint on snowflake designs, but when it get’s wet it just falls apart, so I couldn’t.

And with that she was done.  The main thing I’d like to do over is add extra icy bling to her bodice.  I’d add sugar crystals from the princess cut down to a princess waist, hand attaching each one in vertical columns…  Yup just a few hours, but I’d be enthralled with it!

But she’s lovely either way.  AND tasty!  And honestly, isn’t that what everyone wants in a cake, for it to taste good?  What do you look for in a cake?

Elsa and Anna were the centerpieces of the tabletop and I love how they look together!  What do you think? Want more princess cake tutorials?

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Ashlee Marie

CEO at Ashlee Marie Cakes

Ashlee Prisbrey is a self taught cake decorator and home chef turned blogger turned youtuber. On her blog and youtube channel she shares cake decorating tutorials, from scratch recipes, and themed party food (cause for her parties are all about the food). In addition to blogging and videos she travels around the country speaking at blog conferences. Last year she competed on Food Network, the Halloween Baking championship, a dream come true! Ashlee loves empowering women and moms, in the kitchen, in blogging or in life. Her motto is nothing is too hard with the right tips and tricks.

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