Rapunzel Cake

As promised….

As you may remember from previous blogs it was my daughter Tamsin’s 6^th birthday two weeks ago.  Because Tamsin is very ‘arts and crafty’ (gets it from her Grandma Dee!) She chose a decopatch party.  We went to the Bean and Brush Café in Sale where Tamsin and 14 friends diligently decopatched their own large free standing initial.  They had a ball; I would highly recommend it as a party venue.

Incorporating the arts theme I suggested to Tamsin that I could make a cake in the shape of an artists paint pallet.  Tamsin needed some convincing! To be honest it was a ‘cop out’ on my part because I felt that an artist’s pallet would be an easy option!  Serves me right….Tamsin set her heart on a Rapunzel tower cake! My biggest challenge to date!

I researched castles and princess tower cakes and looked at various ways of how to form the tower.  Because the Rapunzel Tower has one specific turret I knew I had to get the formation right.  The cake only needed to produce enough slices for 15 children so I decided the best option was to make the base of the cake 8”and that way I would not need to cut into the tower.  My intention was to use various size Swiss rolls and cover in fondant icing.  I would not be able to bring myself to serve ‘bought Swiss roll cake’ which didn’t matter as I did not need to use this part of the cake!  After cutting and shaping the Swiss roll I felt that it was 1.Too heavy and 2.Did not give the right cylindrical shape.  I considered using a polystyrene ‘dummy’ but again struggled to find the right size cylinders.  The answer was ‘a cocoa container, baking powder container and an ice cream cone!

You might have noticed that I got an early Christmas present in the background of this shot! Thank you Santa!

My large pot of piping gel came in very handy for sticking on the fondant icing as well as sticking the containers together.  I don’t think I have ever made a cake which needed so many fondant colours; it was a very lengthy process colouring all the icing.  The detail was quite intricate and required A LOT of patience!  Once the tower was formed it was actually quite heavy and I was worried that it would sink into the cake.  I decided to ‘dowel’ the cake (there are some good clips on youtube) by inserting 3 dowels it gave enough support to stop the tower from sinking into the cake.  I stuck the tower on to a 4” cake board which I covered in green fondant to blend in with the rest of the cake.  I did not attach the tower to the cake; I transported the cake in two parts and positioned the tower on the main cake right at the last minute.

Here is the result....

 

There was a lot of ‘ooohing’ and ‘ahhhhing’ from the other 5 and 6 year old girls, who turned to their mummies and asked if they too could please have a Rapunzel tower cake for their next birthday!  The look of terror on the other Mums faces might mean that there could be another couple of orders coming my way.  Can’t say I am in a hurry to repeat the performance anytime soon!

Happy 6th Birthday Tamsi Wams! x