No Sexy Mother Foodie in her right mind would consider buying a birthday cake, unless it was for a specific reason, like “have you tried the ganache at La Pâtiserrie? They get chocolate delivered from Torres!”
Homemade is de rigueur. And who doesn’t love a challenge?
Enter the Barbie Cake that my birthday-girl daughter saw at a friend’s party. It looked as eerie and impossible as a six-foot tall, 100 pound woman with a 39” bust and 18” waist (Barbie’s real-life dimensions). And it was purchased from the local bakery I love.
The problem is that this cake mocked me with its simplicity, so I started googling it. And everyone from Martha Stewart to a blogger who goes by The Happy Housewife promised I could make one. So after an hour or so of watching the same 7-minute instructional video on YouTube, we high-fived and said “game on.”
Of course, a Sexy Mother Foodie cake is supposed to start with farm-fresh ingredients like this:
Right, farm-fresh, SMF ingredients!
Definitely not this:
Wrong Ingredients for SMF cake
Which is what I used. Buying Barbies and groceries from the same store felt very, very wrong.
I knew in advance what my challenge would be: The legs. Evidently, Barbie is too tall for any cake’s good. Most recipes suggest breaking her off at the kneecaps. Now I’m from NJ and of Sicilian heritage, but my daughter screamed at the suggestion, so I just upped the number of cakes to two bundts and one more baked in a bowl (and no, it didn’t cook properly at the center).
More tricks: Wrap Barbie in cellophane (it does make her look a little naughty), and trim down any middle layers to make sure everything is at the right height for those long, long legs.
Weird, but I don’t think Barbie is blushing here.
And there you have it: Two angel-food-sized tube cakes, one cake baked in a 2-quart bowl upturned at the top makes for one TALL Barbie cake.
Barbie emerges tall and victorious atop cake. LittlePetShop and DisneyPrincess friends are there to greet her.
Next, do a messy icing layer, remove the shelf from your freezer to clear her Amazonian height, and freeze for 30 minutes or so.
Then do a final frosting as best you can… (here comes my secret) and drag a piece of paper across the final skirt-coat of frosting until Barbie’s skirt looks as smooth and silky as fondant from La Pâtiserrie.
Once that is done, freeze it again, and you can’t mess up. Add funky-colored icing squirted from a ziplock and you’re good.
And your kids will think you’re great.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hilarious post. Very impressive. I would have had great fun styling that “ballgown”!
I totally should have consulting you on styling the gown!!! Missed opportunity. Next time I’m checking your blog for inspiration. We actually almost went with lavender!
Ha! Saukok, you would have done a killer job “draping” that frosting. I bet you can work fondant like no one else.
That is insane! LOVE that you did that for your daughter.Very funny post
Honestly, if you had done it, the whole thing would have looked much more professional. And farm-fresh-pure.
Great post! The key to the Barbie cake, actually, is to use Barbie’s shorter, stockier “cousin,” Ginny (http://www.voguedolls.com/). She’s bundt height, and can pull off the hoop skirt. I suppose you could also use Skipper, but who would put Skipper in a dress? I had Ginny birthday cakes for years…in fact, I think you were at one of my Ginny cake birthdays! I will try to find a picture and post it to FB
Congrats on a great blog!
Yes yes! Must have photographic proof of an early-80s us with the original Barbie cake! Ginny really does look much more kid-friendly than cello-wrapped Barbie.
That dress was FANTASTIC!…said the friend who first unleashed this cake idea on Mirabelle’s impressionable young mind!