Dora the Explorer Cake 60

by Oylan Gonzalez
(Camp Zama, Japan)

Dora the Explorer Cake

I made this Dora the Explorer cake for my daughter, Julia, on her 2nd birthday. My sister also helped in the frosting of the cake. I baked a 9 x 13 cake and shaped it with a template from Nickjr.com. As I cut it I marked the eyes and hairline with tooth picks so that I would have a guide when frosting it (this helped tremendously).

I use Wilton's Dora the Explorer Icing Colors. The pack comes with four different gels to mix with frosting (red, brown, pink and skin tone). I frosted the face 1st and then piped the hair with chocolate frosting using a zip lock bag with the tip cut off.

I outlined the face/hairline with the chocolate and then filled in the hair. For the eyes I used chocolate covered cookies and stuck an M&M on with a dab of white frosting and then a spot of white frosting on the eye. I then piped white frosting around the corners and outlined that with chocolate frosting.

The nose was also piped chocolate frosting and the mouth was a piece of fruit roll up cut to shape. The cow lick were two pretzel sticks covered in chocolate. I also made 2 small circle shaped cakes and decorated them in yellow and pink. I put candy letters on one that said, "Happy Birthday Julia" and a #2 candle on the other. I also attached long curled ribbons to each cake so they looked like balloons.

Everyone loved how the cakes came out and it almost pained me to cut into it.