Welcome to HowToCookThat, I'm Ann Reardon
and today we are making a pretty ballerina themed cake and cupcakes to go with it. To make this cake you will need to make up
one and a half times the sponge cake recipe (the recipe details are on my howtocookthat.net
website and the video on how to make sponge cake is there too, I'll link to that below)
and bake that in 12 cupcake cases and two 8" round cake tins. Once the cakes are cooled level them and then
cut out the pieces shown on the template. Now I'm making this cake to serve 20 if you
want it bigger just scale it up and use a bigger round cake tin or make more cupcakes. For the cupcakes roll out some white fondant
and then cut out heart shapes. Now you can either use a heart cutter or you
can just use a knife and trace around a heart shape. Place each one over a cardboard roll that's
covered with some non-stick baking paper and shape it so it curves around like the bodice
of a dress. These will take a couple of days to harden
so you can make them ahead of time. Or if you're out of time, you can add tylose
powder to them and the fondant will dry out quicker. Do the same with some pink fondant so that
you have the two coloured dresses. Take a cake board and place a wooden skewer
through the centre. Add some frosting to the base of the board. This just keeps the cake from slipping, then
add the first layer of cake. And we've made this layer one in two halves
so we could cut it all out of the two round cakes without wasting too much excess cake. Top that with more frosting - and I am just
using my basic vanilla buttercream recipe - that's on the website for you too. Then add the next layer of cake. And now the cake gets fatter here so we want
to add some support on those skinny levels so that it will balance on top. So measure how tall the cake is and cut three
cake pop sticks to size and poke them into the cake. They will just hold the cake board up. Add some frosting, and then place the cake
board on top, more frosting on that and then the next layer of cake. Then we want more frosting and continue with
the next two layers of cake on top. Now hold your template in front of the cake
and lining it up with the shoulders, just trim around the template. Down the side and across the top of the shoulders
on both sides. Then just use your knife to shave off a tiny
bit at the corners of the cuts you've just made just to make it smooth and round like
the waist of a ballerina. Now add some frosting to the top and place
a cupcake that you've cut the top off - and put it upside down for the neck. Now you want to cover the whole thing in frosting
so that there is no cake visible. Then use a piece of acetate to smooth it out
around all of those curves and then place that in the fridge for about an hour. Warm the chocolate buttercream and place a
teaspoon full on top of each cupcake. Then using a piping tip like this, start at
the centre and pipe out to the edge and back in, turn, out in, turn, and keep doing that
the whole way around the cupcake out and in to make the ballerina skirts. Take the cake out of the fridge and then add
some fondant over the top smoothing it down with your hands. We are going to have the dress over the top
of this so the fondant doesn't need to come all the way down to the cake board. Just over the top part of it. This is like the manequins that dresses sit
on in the shops so you can make this part any colour you want - just make sure it's
different enough from your dress so you have a bit of contrast, that is why I made this
quite pale. Roll out some fondant for your dress and cut
around the top following the line of the template and when you get to the edge, just let your
knife go straight across so that we have some for the back of the dress that we can wrap
around. Slightly dampen the back of the fondant and
then place it into place on the front of the cake. Position the top where you want it then wrap
around the rest around the back. At the back, squeeze it to together at the
join and then use scissors to trim it off. And using the scissors just helps to pinch
it together. Grab a ball of fondant and then just rub it
gently to smooth out any imperfections or any spots where you've bumped it as you were
putting it on. Roll some fondant so it's very thin and then
gently make ruffles and add them down the side. I found using a cake pop stick really helped
with this because it's just the right size for making those ruffles and also for pushing
it so it attaches to the cake. Then cut a strip of white and add it down
over the join of the ruffle just to neaten that up on both sides. Then add more strips criss-crossing across
the front like laces. Place the cake on top of your cake stand. And roll out some white again, very thin,
and add it around the base of the cake so it completely covers the cake board and comes
to the edge of your cake stand. Once you have the first layer in place add
a thinner strip, it doesn't need to go all the way to the cake, and place them around
just the edge just ruffling them as you go. So this is probably about an inch thick, so
we're not going all the way back so we use less fondant. Once you're happy with the amount of layers
of ruffles that you have, add another strip of fondant over the top and this one does
need to come all the way to the body so it makes it look like it is a full skirt. For the cupcakes, use some of the royal icing
and pipe dots along the top of the heart. Then pipe two lines coming down and then another
line criss-crossing across the body so it matches the laces that are on the cake. For some variety you might also like to pipe
some that are different using swirls, and you can just have fun wtih this and make it
however you want. I suggest you try and make them symmetrical
so it looks like they're supposed to be like that. If you like you can also pipe some details
along the top of the dress there just to make it look pretty and also to bring it all together
so it matches the cupcakes. Add the hearts into the top of your cupcakes
to make the mini ballerina dresses and add them into place on the cake stand and it's
party time! Subscribe to How To Cook That for more crazy,
sweet creations, click here for more cake ideas, here for the recipe and here for macarons
and sweet snacks This cake was requested by:
dancers dream big it's pupz
craftomatic rachel dalisay
lalita nurak rubydoo 123
mckenzie sandstrom jadeew lovley
brianna Chavez charlotte
black magic karly idstein
morgan And more... Put all your requests in the comments below,
make it a great week and I'll see you on Friday.