Castle Birthday Cake

A two tier pink castle cake decorated with M&Ms and marshmallows.

5 from 2 votes

This 3D pink castle birthday cake is a dream come true for little girls! It is a 2-tier cake decorated with marshmallows and has M&M filled turrets for a truly fun birthday cake.

Prep Time30

Cook Time45

Decorating time3

Total Time4 15

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: Two tier square cake

Calories: 3480kcal

Author: Priya Maha

Equipment

Flower plunger cutters
Round cutters
Hot glue
FMM letters and number cutters.
Pizza cutter and sugarcraft
Needle scriber tool
Cake decorating brush
Toothpicks
Satin ribbon

Ingredients

4 eight inch square cakes (made using butter pound cake recipe)
Buttercream
Fondant
Gum paste
Mini marshmallows
M&M candies
Food coloring in pink, brown, green, purple, and yellow
Fondant glue
Shortening
Silver edible dust
Lemon extract
CMC powder

Instructions

Bake 4 layers of 8 inch square cakes. 2 layers are for the bottom tier and the remaining 2 layers for the top tier and the towers. Cool the cakes completely before decorating.
Make the buttercream.
Level all the four cake layers. Stack 2 layers with buttercream frosting. Use round cutters to cut off the corners of the cake to place the towers.
To make the top tier of the castle, cut third cake layer into half (to make two rectangle pieces measuring 8 inches by 4 inches each). Cut the first rectangle into 2 (to make 2 pieces of 4 inches by 4 inches square layers) and stack both with buttercream. Similar to the bottom tier, cut out the corners with round cutters to give space for the cake towers.
Use the remaining cake to cut out circles for the towers. Each tower is made up of 3 layers of cake. There are 4 large towers (for the bottom tier) and 4 small towers (for the top tier). Stack the layers with buttercream. Use the same round cutters used to cut off the corners from the cake tiers.
Crumb coat both the bottom and top cake tier with buttercream and cover them with pink fondant. Do it separately for each tier.
Also crumb coat the towers and cover them with fondant.
Add CMC to some pink fondant. Roll and cut long strips for the battlement on each tower. Attach to the towers with fondant glue.
Attach the towers to the cake, also with fondant glue.
For the top tier, before attaching the towers to cake, cut and attach 2 rows of dark pink fondant bricks (with a sugar craft knife or pizza cutter) all around the base of the cake.
Top the bottom tier towers with M&M candies.
For the top tier towers, make another tier of short towers and cone-shaped roof with flags. These towers are made of fondant and hollow. To make them, knead some CMC into fondant. Cut rectangle pieces of fondant and wrap them around a small rolling pin (or any other long item) to form the hollow towers. Attach the joints with fondant glue. Once the fondant is fairly set, slide them out of the rolling pin and attach to the cake with glue.
To make the cones, cut out round pieces of fondant and then cut each into half circles. Use one piece of the semi-circle to form one cone. Attach the ends with fondant glue. To hide the joints, roll thin strips of fondant and place four lines on each cone as a design, including one on the joining line to hide it. Attach to the towers with fondant glue.
Next, make the flags. Cut triangle pieces of fondant and wrap one side of the flags to a toothpick each. Let the flags set completely before inserting them into the cones.
Cover the cake board with fondant. Brush it with shortening and attach the green fondant to it. For easy covering, cut the fondant into 4 pieces for each side of the cake and attach it separately.
To make the wordings on the cake, use FMM Sugarcraft cutters and very thinly rolled white gum paste. Let the alphabets set and then paint in silver (with the silver edible dust and lemon extract mixture). Let the paint dry completely and attach to the cake with shortening. Place the words "Happy Birthday" on the cake board and the birthday girl's name on a CMC-added brown fondant plaque (cut freehand with a pizza cutter). Let the plaque set before attaching it to the cake.
To make the castle door and window, use brown fondant and cut the shapes by hand with a pizza cutter or sugar craft knife. Mark the wood grain pattern on the door with the needle tool or a toothpick.
Attach to the cake with shortening.
Cut purple and yellow flowers with a flower plunger cutter. Randomly place them on top of the top tier as well as all-round the door.
Arrange a row of mini marshmallows all around the base of the castle birthday cake. Secure these in place with fondant glue.
Complete the cake decoration by attaching a matching ribbon in pink all around the cake board. Use hot glue to secure it in place.

Notes

Make the cakes and buttercream in advance for a quicker decorating process.
Refrigerating the tower cakes will make it easier to cover with fondant as they will be firmer. Also, poke a long skewer in the center of each tower to hold the layers in place as you cover them with fondant. Remove after covering.
Adding CMC to fondant will make it dry firmer and harder and helps 3D fondant decorations to hold their shape.
Some decorations on the cake such as the alphabets and name plaque and the hollow towers and cones can be made in advance to allow them time to set properly.
Instead of making the towers in cake, you can also use cardboard, tissue rolls or Styrofoam blocks and cover them with fondant.

Nutrition