A doll cake would be the perfect birthday cake idea for your little princess! What little girl would not completely fall in love with this? Their favorite princess accented with roses, flowers, lace and more. A Doll cake would be wonderful for a Princess theme party, Disney Princess Theme, Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Barbie, Bratz, Princess Dora, Fairy Tinker Bell and many others. These doll cakes also make a wonderful centerpiece for the birthday party table. While these cakes may look quite complicated to make, the good news is that they really aren't.

Decide on what pan/bowls you are going to use. Wilton makes a Wonder Mold kit that is used just for making doll cakes. It is a dome-like bowl with a hole in the middle to insert the doll into the finished cake. Your finished cake will be an elegant 3-D shape. The pan measures 8-inch in diameter is 5-inches deep. You could also use another round cake pan in conjunction with the Wonder Mold pan to give your doll cake some more height. Other options would be to use a Bundt cake pan or a large bowl suitable for the baking in the oven to create the dome cake. Many Bundt cake pans feature designs such as roses and flowers which will give your doll's dress some texture and fun.

Prepare doll cake for decorating. Once the cake is baked, you need to invert it with the dome side up onto your cake board. If you are not using the Wonder Mold cake pan or Bundt cake pan, you will need to make a hole in the center of the cake before icing. This is so that you can insert the doll afterwards. Place you cake on a board covered in wrapping paper that coordinates with your birthday party theme. After you place your cake on the board, gently lift the cake and slide pieces of wax paper or parchment paper underneath. This is great technique used to protect the cake board from getting covered in icing. It will give the finished cake platter a much cleaner look.

Decorate doll cake with icing or fondant. Next, it is time to decorate and ice your doll cake. You can use regular icing tinted with food coloring or food paste. Or, you can cover your doll cake with fondant. If you decorate the cake with icing, start off with a crumb coat. A crumb coat is the first layer of icing applied to a cake. After you are finished with the crumb coat, put the cake in the freezer for about 45 minutes. This will set the icing and allow for a smoother application of the final coat of icing. If you decide to decorate the cake in fondant, you will have to apply a coat of buttercream first. Click here for step-by-step instructions for decorating with fondant.

Add doll to the cake and finish decorating. Now, it is time to insert your doll. You can use a Wilton doll cake pick or a regular fashion doll. (make sure it is a doll your daughter is not completely attached to just incase it is unusable afterwards.) If you use one of your daughter's dolls, you can protect it by placing a clear bag around the doll's legs before putting it into the cake. This will help keep it clean. Once the doll is in the cake, fill in around it with icing so that it blends in with the cake. You can then decorate the doll with a fondant dress or an icing dress made with rosettes or other designs The remaining dress can also be decorated with icing, sprinkles, flowers, roses, a lace design, or whatever else you want to add.

The Doll cake images displayed here are courtesy of the following cake decorators.   Enjoy!

Fairy Doll Cake Grace's Cakes
Princess Cinderella Doll Cake Special Cakes by Tracey
Princess Belle Cake by Special Cakes by Tracey
Bratz Doll Cake by Cre8acake
Princess Cinderella Doll Cake by Special Cakes by Tracey
Fairy Doll Cake by The Cake Fairy
Barbie Aressa Doll Cake by Special Cakes by Tracey
Barbie Alisya Doll Cake by Special Cakes by Tracey
Princess Belle Cake by Sandra So Cakes
Barbie Princess Doll Cake by Cake Journal

Mini doll cakes are also very cute. They are exactly like the regular doll cake only smaller. You can use the Wilton mini molds and mini picks to create your cakes.  Using the Wilton mini cake mold, one cake mix makes 4 to 6 cakes. The pan is 10 x 10 x 3 inches deep and each individual cake is 3 1/2 x 3 inches.

These mini doll cakes are nice since each little girl at the birthday party can have their very own doll cake. Another option would be to bake a sheet cake and top the finished cake with one or more of these mini doll cakes.