Cake dolls have long been a beloved tradition at birthday parties, baby showers, and Mardi Gras celebrations – dating back centuries when Pagan festivals such as Saturnalia were celebrated before giving way to more recent Christian holidays like Epiphany, Twelfth Night, or Mardi Gras.
Utilize a circular biscuit cutter or knife and cut a hole large enough for Barbie (or another doll of your choice) to fit. Frost the cake.
Barbie Cakes
Barbie cakes make an ideal addition to any girl’s birthday celebration, being easy and quick to create – sure to put a smile on any girl’s face! They can often be found topped with edible decorations depicting her accessories, perfect for celebrating any special event, such as birthday parties, whether the occasion calls for Barbie-themed celebrations or not! These cakes will undoubtedly delight both children and adults alike!
Begin by baking your cake layers, allowing them to cool completely before frosting them. Alternatively, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and store them in the fridge for several hours for easier handling while decorating.
Use a round cookie cutter to cut a hole in the most significant cake layer large enough for your Barbie or another doll you intend to put inside it. Don’t worry too much about being precise here, as you will cover up this hole later with the “dress.”
Fill the hole with a thick layer of your preferred icing. Buttercream or chocolate ganache – whatever suits you best.
Once the icing has set, take your Barbie doll and insert it into the hole you created in the cake. You may wish to include other figurines, such as seahorses, for an ocean-themed cake!
Decorate the bottom of your Barbie cake with edible decorations in bright colors to make a festive sea scene, such as blue-colored icing with blue food jellies resembling seaweed and waves – an ideal option if celebrating a birthday for someone who adores both Barbie and sea life.
Your Barbie-themed cake deserves no less. Decorate its rest with colorful icing and sprinkles that complement her colors, or pipe stars all around its top for extra flair. As an extra sparkle touch, try using sugar pearls – they add just that different special something!
Frozen Charlotte Cakes
Frozen Charlotte cakes are an 18th-century tradition inspired by literary characters. Dolly Varden (also known as Charlotte Russe) became so beloved during the Victorian era that she inspired various products, including cigars, gloves, and even trout varieties, to bear her name – cakes that emulate her fluffy layers were even named for her!
Most doll cakes made to mark special events such as weddings and baby showers often include tiny bride and groom dolls or baby-related toys like teddy bears; others feature action figures like Batman, G.I. Joe, or Elsa from “Frozen.”
Doll cakes can be tailored to any special event or celebration, with any doll serving as its centerpiece. Charlotte cakes featuring baby Jesus figurines are typically served during Epiphany, Mardi Gras, or any other holiday honoring the Holy Trinity.
While most cakes feature their doll atop a pedestal, others embed her directly into the cake itself. This practice was more prevalent in European countries where a tiny bisque china baby would often be placed into Charlotte cakes as an amulet to bring good luck. Today, however, most bakers avoid including plastic babies for fear of infiltrating toxic fumes into their cakes and spreading disease to customers.
At first, these baby dolls were simple porcelain figurines that sold for just a penny each. Victorian children particularly enjoyed this affordable toy as it could even be taken in the bath! As Frozen Charlotte became famous as a cautionary tale involving a girl frozen to death while traveling to a New Year’s ball, it became more widespread, and these Frozen Charlottes became widely sold in miniature coffins as collectible items.
After a time, these miniature dolls were replaced with less costly and more durable tinker toys and plastic dolls available at discount stores, yet many still enjoy keeping up the tradition by placing a small figurine atop their Charlotte cake or placing one inside for good luck.
King Cakes
Mardi Gras isn’t complete for many without at least one king cake! Bakeries and shops throughout New Orleans produce thousands of these purple, gold, and green pastries during Carnival season due to the tradition they represent.
Every king cake contains a tiny plastic baby representing Jesus, representing its creation. When guests cut into it and slice their pieces, they check to see if their work includes one and determine whether to pass it along, purchase another king cake, or mark themselves as its “king.” Traditionally, the first person who finds it will become its “King,” hosting their next king cake party or purchasing/baking another cake themselves for this year’s festivities. It is believed that a person must host and purchase/bake another for future years! If they don’t find one, they become king for another year as that person must host/buy/bake their next king cake party/bake the following year’s.
McKenzie’s Bakery in Louisiana first introduced this tradition during the 1950s by placing small porcelain (now plastic) babies inside its cakes, an idea that quickly caught on. Nowadays, most king cakes sold in Louisiana already contain one or more baby trinkets hidden within. Some bakeries may still insert one into the dough; however, most prefer that buyers place it themselves (due to safety concerns).
Dolls have become an integral part of most celebration cakes these days, from wedding cakes to baby showers and kiddie cakes. At weddings and engagement parties, you might see miniature brides and grooms perched atop each cake; while baby showers offer adorable dolls wearing booties complete with tiny teddy bears. Kids’ cakes typically feature action figures such as Batman, G.I. Joe, Harry Potter, Elsa from Frozen, Wonder Woman, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on top!
An integral component of Mardi Gras traditions, king cakes are synonymous with celebration. Therefore, New Orleans chains and many local bakers offer themed Party Paks featuring beads, doubloons, crowns, and even T-shirts to commemorate this annual event. In fact, certain bakeries accept orders from out-of-state residents looking to bring this beloved New Orleans tradition home with them!
Doll Cakes
After Barbie hit toy shelves, cake makers quickly joined her bandwagon by producing doll cakes. Before Barbie made an appearance on toy shelves, there was already a doll cake type that found itself featured in Twentieth Century Cook Book; even before this came recipes for “Dolly Varden” cakes with layers of white (egg whites), rose (cochineal), and chocolate began cropping up in cookbooks and cake decorating texts.
Wilton Company created the Wonder Mold specifically to create doll cakes; Australia still sells this pan as the Dolly Varden Cake Pan. The recipe required four round cakes layered with frosting between layers; as time passed, these petticoat-like cakes would develop three colors before becoming Doll Cakes (plastic doll stuck into cake covered in frosting as a dress).
Margot Robbie celebrated her 32nd birthday with an elaborate Barbie-themed cake complete with its ginormous pink skirt and Rapunzel’s long blonde locks a la the film, complete with its giant pink Barbie cake skirt and Rapunzel hair! Not only are birthdays being marked by this trend, but these doll-themed cakes can also be found at Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or bridal shower events.
Just like with Frozen Charlotte or King Cakes, doll-shaped cakes are typically ordinary cakes with some kind of surprise inside, such as baby dolls for Mardi Gras cakes or actual Barbie figurines for Barbie Cakes.
These cakes are far more straightforward to create than you may imagine! The hardest part is choosing an appropriate doll to include. If using an actual one, be sure to cover her up first in plastic wrap to protect her body and hair from buttercream slathering her directly onto her surface. Next, use an icing spatula to apply some icing at the intersection where the doll and cake meet – covering any gaps or creating an ideal transition between characters – before finally icing her or adding any decorations you desire!
