The Great Princess Castle Birthday cake part 1

Well I have embarked on my biggest challenge as a mother yet - to make a Princess Castle Birthday cake for Miss Boo, who will be 7 at the end of Febraury.


I have reviewed many websites to see what others who have gone before me and taken up the challenge have done, and feel safe in the thought that well i can't do much worse than they have.
The first stage was the making of the towers (princess castles have to have to have towers otherwise how can the handsome prince rescue them), the advice from the all knowing web was two fold, firstly icecream cones the small flat bottom ones for little hands covered in chocolate, which was simple enough and very tasty, as the expanding waist line of my work colleages show, but a bit bob the builder not princess like at all really.


so on to choice number two, this involves something called pastillage icing (yeah i'd never heard of it before either) have now though and i have made it from scratch!!!  ( i know your impressed)  well hang on to your hats i not only made it from scratch but coloured it pink and made 4 small towers with diamond windows cut into them!!!!!


The look amazing and have dried without cracking and i have removed the cardboard tubes without damaging them, they are now at Mrs M's (grandmas) drying ready to have there pointy roofs put on them.


Now have to move on to the castle itself, well that is simple i hear you say just make the cake, but this has to be a large cake as it has to have layers, and i have never made a cake that big before.    The internet though helpful is not easy to cuddle up to in bed and pour over each little detail, turning the page upside down to get a better look at how they did the top etc is not easy either, so it was off to the good old library and the cooking & baking section, and the finding of the cake decorating book, with all the answers.


It showed not only the equipment you need, but gives you the quantities for specific size cake tins, for maderia cake and chocolate cake, and a fruit cake, also proper instructions on how to make the decorations for the cake.


so today was the making of the maderia cake for the bottom layer and the chocolate cake for the centre layer, however the jury is out on what to make as the top layer (the tower in which the princess who is being made out of Modelling icing paste) will be awaiting her prince charming.  


so once they are cooled, tomorrow will be the big cover it with pink icing and try out the tower positions, taking pics along the way so we can do all this again this time next month.   oh yes did I mention the birthday isn't till the end of Feb.


so keep your fingers crossed for me, and look out for pics of the trail run later this week.