Well, it's no secret that when it comes to events, I have the inability to plan ahead. This is especially true every year at Bella's birthday. It comes right before Thanksgiving and the world is far too hectic for me to multitask properly. As a result, Bella sometimes gets the short end of the stick. This year was no exception in regards to planning. I was out in California at a conference when my Uncle e-mailed me to see when I was having Bella's birthday...EEKS! I forgot and it snuck up too soon! Nonetheless I was determined that when it came to her party and cake, she was not getting the shaft this year. I set out to find the perfect cake to make! She is obsessed with Snow White so I hit Pinterest and Google and got a crazy good idea! First I found THIS, then I needed to get a better picture of the dwarfs so I found THIS. I decided I would adapt to my abilities and came up with this:
I was so excited! I started with the headboard and footboard, made them out of gum paste. I made the gum paste, rolled it out, then cut out the shapes needed and took a sharp knife to draw the lines and make it look like pieces of wood. Every imperfection only heightened the affect! There was a even a little hole that looked like a knot in the wood, it was perfect. I let it dry (still white) for about three days, two would have been sufficient but I made it earlier. Then, I mixed brown food coloring gel and water, painted it on with a paint brush and Voila!
I used a box cake mix (red velvet) and canned frosting, not typically my style but just didn't have the additional time for all homemade this year. When I made the cake, it wasn't thick enough to support the huge head/foot boards so I decided to juice it up a bit. I placed rice crispy treats (frosted at the sides) underneath the cake, then I painted them with the same food coloring/water mixture as the headboard so it looked like wooden sideboards if you got a glance.
Everything else was molded out of fondant, this is incredibly time consuming but fun! I worked on it two different nights and one morning, probably took about 4 hours or so just for the molding, you really want to do this at least a day ahead so they can dry. Also, make sure you have toothpicks on hand, they were especially helpful for keeping the Dwarfs heads on and the stems for the apples! Finally, I covered the bed in fondant so the brand new Snow White Barbie wasn't sitting in Frosting, then I placed Snow white in the bed and covered with a large clean piece of Fondant with the top folded over for a blanket affect. I pressed and molded the quilt squares from leftover pieces of fondant and placed them on the blanket last with a paint brush and a little bit of water. Lastly, I took a black decorating gel for the stitching and the witch's wart. Placed each dwarf wherever they would fit and the cake was complete!
Notice the details:
Sneezy is holding a tissue
Doc has glasses (although they look like shades)
Bashful has red cheeks and nose (red food coloring and water, painted with a paint brush)
Happy also has red cheeks and nose but hands are on his belly and I gave him a big smile!
Grumpy has angry eyebrows :)
Sleepy has semi-closed eyelids (although somehow this made him look like he was of Asian descent)
and Dopey doesn't have facial hair and is probably the most identifiable!
The barrel of apples were so cute and super easy to make, definitely good for affect!
Now...if I could just get my catering business started! Although the fondant itself cost somewhere around $50, now I know why cake makers charge so much. Probably 8 hours of time and $60 in supplies! That would be over $200...guess I'm gonna have to look into making my own fondant!
One final note: when choosing candles for your 3 year old's Birthday...make sure they're not trick candles! While it's sort of funny because it's an accident, people think you're cruel! :) Sorry Bella!
