Disney Princesses Cake and Cupcakes - A Tutorial

These Disney Princesses cake and cupcakes are another one of my specially customized cakes, and one that was quite challenging to decorate too!

Poster for a cake decorated with Disney Princesses images and a set of matching cupcakes

The cake was for little Abrianna’s first birthday. It was requested by her Aunt who wanted all the Disney princesses on a single tier cake. She also specifically requested for the cake not to be covered in fondant!

This was a large cake, carved out of 2 rectangle cakes measuring 13 inches by 11 inches each. The Disney Princesses image was obtained from the internet. I had to transfer the pattern onto the cake with all the tiny facial details, etc.

If you notice, I made a blunder with Cinderella’s eyes and Snow White’s too! I wish I could go back and correct them, but my customer totally did not mind it. I must say, the hardest part of decorating this cake was getting the facial features right. And the longest time taken was to transfer the bevy of Disney princesses onto the cake.

The cupcakes, on the other hand, were pretty straight forward. I used edible images of the Disney princesses and framed them on with the star buttercream border.

Here is how I decorated this Disney Princesses cake and cupcakes:

Main supplies for Disney Princesses cake and cupcakes:

Cake and cupcakes – I used my chocolate cake recipe for the cake and the cupcakes. I further filled each cupcake with chocolate ganache.
Buttercream – I used buttercream to fill the cake and as the base covering for the cupcakes.
Butter icing – this is essentially a stiffer version of my buttercream. I used this icing to cover sections of the cake that is not covered by the Disney princesses' image.
Fondant – although my customer specifically asked for the cake not to be covered in fondant, she was ok with using it to accent the deco on the cake. And so I used my handmade fondant for the letters on the cake and the tiny pink flowers that frame the pink section of the cake.
Gumpaste roses – I used 4 tiny gum paste roses on the cake (with green gum paste leaves attached) and these were store-bought (from a local cake decorating supplies shop).
Piping tips (Wilton tip 3), (Wilton tip 18), and disposable piping bags - The round tip (Wilton tip #3) was to pipe outlines of the Disney princesses and the star ones (Wilton tip #18) was for the star piping to fill the princesses’ images and the cake border.
Wilton food colors in pink, royal blue, golden yellow, black, white, red, brown, and ivory.
Edible image print – I used edible images to decorate the cupcakes in matching Disney Princesses theme. I ordered the prints from a local supplier.

Decorating the cake and cupcakes:

The cupcakes

These were pretty easy to decorate. All I had to do was cut out the edible images to fit the top of my cupcakes. And then I piped tiny stars frame all around each image with pink buttercream.

A set of 8 cupcakes decorated in Disney Princesses images and pink buttercream border

Disney Princesses Cupcakes

The cake

As for the cake, I prepared the Disney Princesses template beforehand. I downloaded it from the internet and resized it so that it would fit the size of my cake. I had to use A3 papers to print the image. Once printed, I traced it onto a clean greaseproof paper. That was my template.
I also prepared the 3D lettering in advance, in fondant. I used my homemade fondant for these and attached a toothpick underneath each letter. This is so that they remain in place once placed upright on the cake.
Next was the cake itself. I carved it out of 2 rectangle cakes measuring 11 inches by 13 inches. Once both cakes were baked and cooled, I placed them on a cake board and leveled them. Next, I used some buttercream to attached them together to form one large cake.
I then crumb coated the cake, with just a very thin layer of buttercream. The buttercream coat is important because it is on the buttercream that I will transfer my pattern onto. And it has to be a very thin coating or else it will be messy to trace the pattern.

Transferring the Disney Princesses pattern

So after the crumb coat, I placed my template on the cake and traced the Disney Princesses onto it. To do this, I used my craft knife and literally cut through the template to transfer the lines onto the cake. I did this in sections, starting from the larger patterns and finishing off with the smallest details.
Once the entire pattern was transferred, I removed all the paper bits and covered the rest of the cake with butter icing (except for the area where I have traced the Disney Princesses image on). I covered the cake right until the border of the princesses' image. If you notice, there is a pink section on the lower end of the cake. This was butter icing too.
Once the butter icing work was done, I started the piping work. First-order is the outline piping in black. For this, I used a round piping tip (Wilton #3). Only when all the outlines were done did I start the star piping to fill the outlines. For best results, the stars must be piped as close as possible to one another such that there is no gap in between them that could show the cake underneath. The only sections of the traced design that I did not use star piping were the Disney princesses’ eyes and mouth. For these, I used a round tip and filled the area with icing.

A buttercream cake decorated with images of Disney Princesses in buttercream piping

Buttercream images on Disney Princesses Cake

The cake border

Completing the Disney Princesses was like completing a major part of the cake decoration. To finish off the buttercream deco, I piped pink rope border all around the base of the cake.

A Disney Princesses cake in pink theme

Lettering on the cake

The next steps were the finishing touches for the cake. I started by attaching the 3D fondant letters that form the birthday girl’s name. Before poking them into the cake, I checked the placement. This is to make sure they are placed in even intervals and appear balanced on the cake.

3D alphabets on the Disney Princesses cake

Flower border

And then, I rolled some pink fondant, used my flower plunger cutters to cut out tiny 5 petal flowers, and used them to frame up the pink section at the lower end of the cake. Each flower had a tiny dot of buttercream. And finally, I pressed in 4 small gum paste roses at the corners of the pink section of the cake.