Okay, so I decorate cakes. And they’re pretty good, if I do say so myself. See here and here. Well, sometimes I have a cake disaster. Those sometimes are inevitably when I am making a cake for my own kids. Last year it was a Darth Vader head. Well, it was Darth Vader’s head if it had gotten stuck in a compactor of some sort. The proportion was all wrong, not tall enough. My son made the best of it. I also made a very cute giant cupcake which fell over in the car. Total loss, although my kids and the cat did enjoy some salvageable scraps straight out of the trunk.
My daughter turned 8 this week and wanted a Tangled birthday cake. The tower, with Rapunzel hanging out the window by her hair. I had to object. I could do Rapunzel in the window with the hair hanging out the window. She reluctantly agreed. So I stayed up all night, literally no sleep, and I worked on it. And I discovered a few things.
1. Rice crispy treats are wonderful and should always be used when trying to defy gravity.
2. A mixer with a dough hook is an excellent way to make marshmallow fondant.
3. Faces and people are impossible to make freehand out of fondant. Not for everyone, but definitely me.
Okay, so I used rice crispy treats for the base of the tower but not the top. I used a cupcake. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. I knew it was going to be a problem, so I didn’t attach it until it was time for the party. It didn’t matter. It leaned and eventually fell off.
The Leaning Tangled Tower of Rapunzel
In the above picture, you can see the long hair draped around the distressed castle. Alas, that’s all you see of dear Rapunzel. I tried desperately to make a fondant version of the damsel but every new attempt looked worse than the first. She went from looking like an old hag to looking like Marty Feldman.
Can you imagine that with long flowing blonde hair looking out at you from a fairy tale tower? I think not. When I told Molly there would be hair but no Rapunzel, she was less than happy. She insisted that I could use what I came up with. I willingly showed her my Marty Feldman Rapunzel and she said, “Well, maybe just the hair.” Smart girl.
Of course, I now realize I could have printed out a picture and traced it on a hunk of fondant, painted it, and stuck it in the window. But after being up all night, I was tired, disgusted with myself, and not thinking clearly. Oh well. I think it turned out okay and dear Molly begrudginly settled for my sub par work was happy.
Tangled Tower Cake
All in all it was a good birthday. She had a slumber party with just the girls. She insisted her brothers be shipped off to Nana’s because “they’re annoying and Billy tries to kiss my friends.” Billy is 5 and cute as a button. Honestly, don’t you want to kiss him?
Hey, girl. Wanna make out?
The next day, we had a pool party with the brothers, who did annoy the girls. As far as I know, there was no kissing. Molly blew out her candles and cake and ice cream were consumed. It was a nice party and it took me a day and a half to recover.
Molly blowing out the candles on her topless tower.
Two birthdays down. Only three more to go.
