Austin, TX

My niece, Sophie, is crazy about SpongeBob’s friend, Sandy Cheeks, a lovable squirrel from Texas, who just happens to live in the sea. Sophie desperately wanted to be Sandy for Halloween but we couldn’t find a costume. You could buy one online but it wasn’t a very good costume so she ended up going as Winnie the Pooh. My mother told me that she was very into her character and refused to remove a single item no matter how overheated she got.

Sophie’s birthday was last week so I thought I’d make her a Sandy Squirrel cake but then my sister-in-law told me that Sophie had seen a castle cake and wanted that, instead. Since they live up north of Dallas and the cake was fairly simple, they decided to do it themselves. I would then make a second cake here that the whole family could share over the holiday. When I asked my brother if I should do a castle cake or the Sandy cake he told me to do a castle. Apparently the one they’d made had collapsed while they were out to dinner.

I was excited because I had won the Wilton Romantic Castle set a while back at our cake club Day of Sharing and I hadn’t had a chance to use it yet. I baked the cake up the day before everyone arrived and got it torted and crumb coated. The next day we set to work icing it and then I got the castle set down and pulled out the pieces. Anyone sensing a problem here?

In retrospect, I realize that it might have been a good idea to look at the set prior to baking the cakes. Can you say “failure to plan?” Yes, I thought you could. Ah well, when all else fails, improvise! I had made two layers which was fine but the top layer should have allowed enough room for the roof to sit on top of the bottom layer. What we did instead was to cut out a piece of the top layer to slide the roof into and Voilà! we had a castle. As you can see, I had helpers:

This is my niece, Sophie, and my nephew, Robin (her brother). We made fondant flowers and painted them with luster dust. We managed to finish the princess before the kids took off with their parents to see the Dr. Seuss exhibit at Arts on 5th. While they were gone I got the fondant on the cake, sugared the turrets and put it all together. The cake came out really cute, if I say so myself. This morning I got an email from my friend Carmen at the library asking if I could make a castle cake for her for a friends daughter. Isn’t that funny? Here is the finished cake:

It looks as though I may be making two more castle cakes this month. I’ll probably submit the best of the three to Wilton’s castle cake contest. The Grand Prize is a two week master course at their headquarters. That would be very cool!

birthday, cake, castle, princess, Sophie, wilton, romantic castle, set