How to Make a Ballerina Cake

This week, she's four.


Four.

How did this happen? How did she get to be so big? And eloquent? And obsessed with all things pink and frilly and winged and sparkly?


She's four. She knows her own mind. She knows what she likes. And this year, she wanted a ballerina birthday cake.

I never imagined myself as the mum making the special themed cakes - it's not really my style. But my girl was not letting go of this idea, and talked for weeks about her ballerina cake, her chocolate ballerina cake, her chocolate ballerina cake with strawberries, her chocolate ballerina cake with strawberries and pink icing, about eating the skirt off her chocolate ballerina cake with strawberries and pink icing.

(I was to be allowed to eat the crown, by the way, which is obviously a testament to my mothering awesomeness.)

So, what was I to do?

I made a ballerina cake.


I must admit, I had help. Nelle cracked eggs and stirred and diligently cleaned the batter off the spatula. And my friend Catriona was the one with the inspired idea for making the cake this way in the first place - and even helped me pick out the (gasp) Barbie for the centre.

Yes, Barbie.
I had no choice.


(She is pretty, though, don't you think?)

We used this recipe (1 full + 1/2 half amounts) for the cake itself - but baked it in a bundt tin. When it was cool, we tipped the cake out, upside down, and set it gently on the upside-down bundt tin itself.

Think - two tiered dress.

We made icing ... a not-too-sweet cream cheese icing, with fresh raspberries to make it pink. With this recipe:

***********
Perfect Cream-Cheese Icing
for 1 small cake

The time
10 min

The ingredients
1 packet cream cheese
2 Tbs soft butter
1/4 cup raw honey
~10 fresh raspberries (optional) or 1 Tbs purple carrot puree (optional)

The process
1. Mix everything together till smooth, smushing the raspberries with a fork as you go. Put the icing on the cooled cake.

The cost
Around $3. It was even organic. Barbie was not.


We made plain cream cheese icing (2 batches) to cover the bundt tin, and lined the bottom of the 'dress' with raspberries. The cake itself was covered in fluffy dots of raspberry-pink icing. Barbie stood gracefully in the hole in the middle of the cake and tin. We did our best not to coat her in cream cheese. (She survived the ordeal.)

And with our lovely friends here in Phoenix, we celebrated the four years we've shared with our beautiful girl (so far).

Happy Birthday, Nelle.

Amanda xx
PS. I was forgiven for using raspberries instead of strawberries. Whew.

Comments

  1. Love your ballerina cake! I'm sure Nelle will coerce you in to making many more over the years to come :)

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  2. Wow! Happy Birthday to Nelle and four wonderful years! That cake looks like heaven... (except for the barbie part...)

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  3. Haha my daughter was just the same! She actually 'ordered' her barbie princess cake a whole year in advance, that's how keen she was!! I have no idea where her girly-ness comes from either? I made mine in a dolly-varden tin and used raspberries to colour the icing too :-)

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  4. Happy birthday Nelle!! We love you (and the cake ... very clever). xx

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  5. Happy Birthday, Nelle!! (Amanda, She is absolutely adorable!)
    It's so hard to believe how fast the time flies when you have kids, isn't it.
    You did a wonderful job on the Barbie cake!

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  6. Jess, Juanita, Emma, Linda, and Jen,
    Thank you! Both for the birthday wishes and the pat on the back. (Us mummies need that sometimes ;) )
    xx

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  7. I laughed out loud at your daughter lounging in the inflatable chair in the pool with her swim goggles on! What an adorable picture.

    You did a great job on her cake and I'm sure it made her special day even that more memorable.

    Happy Birthday Miss Nelle!

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  8. Yay for ballerina cakes! Happy Birthday Nelle! Big hugs from Calvin and I. We'll have to celebrate when you return to our side of the world.

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  9. @Renee Treml Thanks for the hugs! We'll definitely celebrate. Hopefully it's not too inappropriate to celebrate with a glass of red wine for your daughter's 4th ... :)

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  10. Happy Birthday to your gorgeous little girl! My daughter is 2.5yrs and they do grow fast!!
    I am pretty sure I will also be baking cakes with barbies soon! lol!!

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Thanks for commenting! Amandaxx