Coolest Dora Birthday Cake 88

by Rachael
(Mount Joy, PA)

Homemade Dora Birthday Cake

I made a 2 tier fondant covered Dora Birthday Cake for my daughter's 2nd birthday. I made 3 8" cakes (one vanilla, one chocolate, one strawberry). I leveled them and split them into two layers each. Then I trimmed one layer from each flavor to a 6" round.

I stacked them on a cardboard circle with homemade buttercream frosting between each layer using the recipe from Wilton. Then I did a thin coat of buttercream over both cakes. I colored and rolled "pre-made" fondant from Wilton and covered each cake. I used dowels to create a support for the top cake. I trimmed them to the exact height of the bottom cake and pushed them down into the cake and then stacked the 6" round on top of the 8".

Then I used homemade royal icing (again, Wilton's recipe) to create Dora's outline on the top tier. I then watered down and colored different colors of the icing to pool into the different areas to color Dora. I had bought the little Dora heads and used some royal icing to stick them around the cake. Then I cut out some stars from left over fondant, wet the back, and stuck them around the cake. I added a small border at the bottom of the top tier to cover my "imperfections" and then did some additional embellishments using the same royal icing that I did Dora's outline with.

All in all, I am delighted with the outcome as this is my very first time making a layer cake and using fondant. I think I am most proud of the Dora image on top, but next time I would either buy pre-tinted fondant in order to get more vivid colors and save the upper body ache of kneading the colors together. Also, I would suggest flavoring the fondant with the clear vanilla or possibly attempting to make the home-made marshmallow fondant which I just didn't feel ambitious enough to attempt this time around.

As it stands, I doubt my party guests will actually eat the fondant, it doesn't taste BAD but it doesn't taste good either! But, the Neapolitan cake on the inside will be scrumptious!
Anyway, I would suggest taking the chance and go for it with a cake. It was very time consuming BUT very fun at the same time!