The Rapunzel Cake

The cake gets it's own post? YEP! I spent more time making this cake than I did being in labor with Lorelai! (Okay, that's a little dramatic. I was only in labor for 5 1/2 hours.) This cake took about 8 hours. I know that if I had just done it all at once with no interference it would have gone a lot faster, but that's the joy of motherhood!

Anyway! I looked online for a long time trying to find the best way to make this cake. Some people just made a bunch of rounds, stacked them on top of each other, and then cut the gown shape. None of those looked very good and I am not good at that kind of thing anyway. I bought the Wonder Mold Pan from Wilton.
Unfortunately, if you want to put a real Barbie in the middle it's not tall enough. I found that out by reading the reviews here (thank you Lori for this link. It totally saved me). So I added a 9in. round to the bottom and it was the perfect height!
When I finished crumb coating the cake (at 3:00 in the morning) I needed somewhere to put it. I was so afraid the kids would get up before me (which they did) and eat the cake (luckily, they didn't) so I put it as high as I could in the most inconspicuous place I could find. See it?
The kids saw it too. Luckily, Lorelai wouldn't let Reid near it and I woke up right after they did so it stayed safe! We spent the day playing and then I spent from late afternoon to the evening mixing (I have totally converted to gel food coloring because it's awesome!), rolling, placing, and cutting the fondant. Lorelai spent a lot of time advising me during this process.
I let her help smooth the fondant because (like everyone says) fondant shows EVERY little bump. She is a multi-tasker like me! Talking to Aunt Lori while she works.
Fondant DONE!
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair!
Finally we finished! It was so worth it! I can still see things I would change or do differently, but I think it turned out great for our first fondant cake! And my princess LOVED it. Also, I'm very glad we had extra batter and I made those cupcakes! I didn't think about the fact that you can't really put candles in fondant!
It killed me to cut into the cake, but it tasted great! I'm glad Lore is a chocoholic like me!
Tips for next time: Don't forget to use shortening. I read a bunch of different fondant instructions and only one of them mentioned greasing your work area and hands. I would have been in big trouble if I hadn't read that! I just need to be more careful about touching Rapunzels hair. It was a little greasy by the time we were done. Also, the crumb coating is key! I think I'll use a thicker layer next time because it's really the only frosting you get to eat. I'm just not a huge fan of the fondant flavor. If you are doing layers of fondant pay attention to the thickness. I should have made my bottom layer thinner. What an experience! The most important thing to remember is to have fun! It's not worth it if it's not fun!