How to make a Dolly Varden Cinderella birthday cake – without it ending in tears

Why I choose the most difficult cakes to bake, I don’t know. This time it was a Dolly Varden cake for Holly’s second birthday. Not only was it a Dolly Varden cake, but it was a Dolly Varden Cinderella cake.

As you will have read yesterday, I had some challenges. Here are some points from my cake making exercise:

• The recipe calls for one and a half quantities of cake mixture, so I had enough mixture left over to make cupcakes as a backup. Thankfully I didn’t need to use those.
• Fondant ready roll icing I think is easier than butter icing. It’s just like playing with Play Dough. Hence, my mouse!
• This one definitely needs to be made a day before. Unlike last year’s princess castle cake. It took a long time and plenty of things can go wrong.
• After making the recipe and having all sorts of trouble and stress with the Dolly Varden tin, I’ve since read about cooking three square cakes, piling them on top of each other, then trimming the edges to form a cone. Now that would have been a heck of a lot easier.
• Never open the oven to check on your cake when it’s in an incredibly unstable Dolly Varden tin. Never. Read this to learn why.
• I have to thank Donna Hay Kids Birthday cookbook and Pinterest for helping me come up with the design.

Here’s how I made it:

Dolly Varden Cinderella Cake by Kellie O’Brien on Scribd

Would you attempt to make something like this? Or have you already?

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