Princess Castle Cake (How to Make)

📋Supplies Required

• Marble pound cake – Two layers of 10 inch by 6 inch rectangle cakes and two layers of 8 inch square cakes.
• Buttercream – To fill the cake layers and to crumb coat the cake before covering with fondant.
• Fondant – I used store-bought one for this project. You can also make your own fondant from scratch with my easy homemade fondant recipe or a quicker version with my marshmallow fondant recipe.
• Gum paste – This is used for all the wordings on the cake. 
• Cardboard – To help form the castle towers.
• Cutters – These are 5 petal flower cutters in a few different sizes, heart plunger cutters and a scalloped rectangle cutter for the bushes on the curved garden section of the cake.
• Woodgrain impression mats – To decorate the castle door. 
• Star piping tips – To decorate the shrubs at the back of the castle as well as on the sides and front of the cake. 
• Extruder tool – For all the border work on the cake, including the castle and the tiara. 
• Tappit alphabet cutter – To cut the birthday girls’ names and the 'happy birthday' wording. 
• Shortening and fondant glue – these are used to stick fondant decorations on the cake. Fondant glue is used for heavier items and shortening for lighter ones.
• Food coloring - to tint the fondant and gum paste.
• Hot glue and ribbon - To decorate the sides of the cake board.
• Needle scriber tool - to mark the bricks line on the steps.
• Pizza cutting wheel and sugar craft knife - as general fondant cutting tools.

👩‍🍳How to Make

Step 1: Bake the Cakes and Mix the Buttercream

Bake 2 layers of 10 inches by 6 inches rectangle cakes. Each layer should be approximately 2 inches high. These will form the bottom tier or base cake (i.e., the garden and the stairs).

Also bake 2 layers of 8 inch square cakes. These will make the castle cake.

Cool all the cake layers completely before carving and decorating.

Make the buttercream for the filling and crumb coat.

Step 2: Carve and Decorate the Garden Cake

Once completely cooled down, level all 4 cake layers. Sandwich both the rectangle layers with buttercream.

Carve the top layer of the cake to make a stairway in the center and curves on both sides of the stairs. Mix the carved out cake pieces with buttercream to make a thick cake paste (like making cake pops). Use this to shape the remaining 3 steps at the bottom of the stairway.

Crumb coat the whole cake. Cover the sides with blue fondant, the top with green and the stairs in white.

To make the grass on the bottom tier, roll and cut green fondant into long strips and use a pizza cutter to cut out triangles on one sides of the strip to create the grass effect. Attach to the cake with shortening. The grass on the curved walls of the garden is cut using cutters.

Next, add the dark green shrubs on the top of the cake and sides of the stairs. Roll dark green fondant into sausages and attach to the cake with glue. Poke the top in random order with a star piping tip to create the leaves effect. Add red fondant flowers (cut using the smallest of the flower plunger cutter).

To make the trees, use brown fondant for the trunk (roll by hand) and use a medium flower cutter to make the leaves for the trees. Attach to the cake with shortening.

For the green 3D flowers with the “happy birthday’ wording, cut them using the flower plunger cutter and attach to a toothpick. Use thick fondant so that you can poke the toothpicks into the fondant. Cut all the red letters in red tinted gum paste using Tappit letter cutters. Attach to the green flowers with shortening. Let the flowers set before attaching to the cake.

Cut the purple and pink flowers using flower plunger cutter as well. Attach to the front of the cake with shortening.

The two roses at each side of the steps are formed by hand. See my tutorial on how to make gum paste roses. 

To create the bricks design on the stairs, draw the lines with a needle tool. Hand paint the lines with purple food coloring (diluted with water).

Brush the cake board with shortening and cover it with green fondant. Cut the fondant into 4 separate rectangles and attach to the cake board.

Step 3: Carve the Castle Cake

Sandwich the square cake layers. Cut out two 2 square pieces - one measuring 5 inch square and the other measuring 3 inch square. These will form the top and bottom tier of the castle.

Crumb coat both tiers with buttercream and cover with pink fondant. Use a needle tool or a toothpick to draw the brick lines on both tiers.

Add pink border all around the edges of the bottom tier. Use an extruder tool to pipe out the fondant strip for the border. Attach the strip with fondant glue.

Note: The border can also be rolled by hand, though it will be slightly more time consuming.

Add the door and windows on the sides. These are rolled and cut by hand and attached with shortening.

Step 4: Make the Castle Towers

Make 4 cardboard rolls in the size of the towers (approximately 1 inch to 1.5 inches in diameter and 6 to 7 inches high).

Note: The actual height of the towers is 4 inches but the cardboard roll should be slightly longer so that it is easier to handle the fondant wrapped around it in the next steps.

Add CMC to some pink fondant, roll it thin and cut it into 4 rectangle pieces measuring approximately 4 inches high and 6 inches wide.

Wrap each piece around the cardboard rolls, trim any excess and secure the joints with fondant glue. Set these aside for the glue to set and then gently remove the cardboard rolls.

Repeat the process for single tower for the top of the castle.

Add windows to each tower.

To make the pointy roofs, cut out circles in CMC-added purple fondant. Cut each circle into half and join the straight end of the semi circles to form a cone. Glue the joints with fondant glue. Set aside to dry.

Step 5: Make the Tiara

Draw the tiara template on a piece of paper, making sure the size fits the castle cake. Cut out CMC added purple fondant using the template.

Note: You can draw the template free hand or find a suitable image from the internet. Resize it accordingly to fit the size of the castle cake. See here for guide on how to resize images for cake decorating.

Decorate the tiara with an embossed heart design in the center. Add small flower and heart fondant cut outs on the sides.

Shape the tiara by wrapping it around any cylindrical items like a cookie jar or glass bottle. Choose an item with a diameter that fits the top of the castle cake ( it should fit within the bottom castle tier and able to fit the top castle tier within its diameter).

Let the tiara set completely before removing from the jar or bottle. Use the extruder tool to pipe out a long strip of fondant roll and attach it to the top rims of the princess tiara with fondant glue.

Step 6: Assemble the Castle Cake

Poke four bubble tea straws into the garden cake where you wish to position the castle. These should be within the size of the castle cake and should not be visible once you place the castle on them.

Lift and carefully place the base tier of the castle cake (the castle cake should be with a cake board or card board underneath in the exact size of the cake) onto the garden cake. The weight of the cake will be supported by the bubble tea straws underneath.

Note: If you are going to transport the cake elsewhere, you will need to poke a dowel rod through both the castle cake tiers all the way to the bottom of the garden tier to prevent the tiers from sliding off.

Add the second tier of the castle cake. Next add all the towers. Secure them in place with fondant glue.

Finally, place the princess tiara on the cake. Hold it in place with fondant glue to complete the princess castle cake design.