Cool Homemade Tangled (Rapunzel) Cake

This Tangled (Rapunzel) Birthday Cake was for my daughter’s 6th birthday as she is a HUGE Tangled fan! The cake is an 11×15 sheet (Wilton pan) and covered with buttercream frosting (made from Crisco, powdered sugar, liquid butter flavoring, & vanilla extract). I used 2 boxes of cake mix and followed a recipe from The Cake Doctor cookbook…….both boxes together yielded 11 cups cake batter.

The tower is made out of rice krispy treats covered in MM fondant. I “crushed” the rice krispies in a food processor (consistency of cornmeal) before making the treats so they wouldn’t give the fondant a “bumpy” appearance. I made the tower about a week in advance and stored wrapped in saran wrap as we didn’t plan to eat it! It was quite heavy, so I used a wooden dowel rod through the center for extra support. Also, the cobble stone appearance of the tower base was created using an impression mat. Vines are piped buttercream (tip #3) and the yellow flowers are buttercream (star tip # 18).

The surface of the cake is decorated using a grass tip (#233) and the flowers are also made of fondant with a white non-pareil for the center. Tangled figures are from the Disney store and were a part of my girl’s present.


11 thoughts on “Cool Homemade Tangled (Rapunzel) Cake”

  1. Thanks so much! The tower was a little time consuming (mainly the roof), but making it ahead of time definitely took away some of the stress….or crunch for time! :) I meant to put in the original description that the cobblestone impression mat came from Michaels (in the Duff Goldman products). It was fairly inexpensive $5.00 then used the coupon making it around $3!

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  2. This cake is very well done and I was wondering if you would mind if i asked you how you made the castle. I am fairly new at cake decorating and need a little direction. Thanks

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  3. I am going to do my best to replicate this beautiful cake for my own daughter’s 6th birthday. What did you use for the purple roof of the tower? An ice-cream cone? Did you use rice krispie treats to design the entire tower and then decorate the top of the tower with icing or marshmallow fondant?
    Thank you for this wonderful idea!

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  4. Hi! Thanks so much for the compliment!

    The tower is made of rice krispy treats “shaped” to look like the tower/castle. It is actually a few separate pieces “glued” together with white chocolate and dowel rod for support. I shaped the sections with household items (measuring cups, tumbler, funnel) and then tried to mold them as best I could to resemble a tower. The structure was kind of heavy so I ended up using a wooden dowel rod inserted through all the sections to give it extra support (bought one at Lowe’s and cut it the proper length….much cheaper than the dowels in the cake aisles). I’ve also seen folks use 2 ice cream cones (cake cones) glued together end to end to do the base of the tower.

    I used marshmallow fondant to cover the sections of the tower. The roof tiles I cut with a knife by hand to cover the roof. I think a lot of the other details are in the original description…….Hope this helps and if you have any other specific questions that aren’t covered. let me know and I’ll try to answer. This was the first time I’d made a “structure” covered in fondant for a cake…..so I am fairly new too! :)

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  5. Hey there, the cake is awesome!!! Just wondering what MM fondant is and where can i find it? Also the tiles are cut from the same fondant, i assume???

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  6. Thanks!

    MM = marshmallow fondant(made from marshmallows, powdered sugar, and water) . I made it from a recipe I found online (What’s Cooking America) . It’s a cheaper and easier (for me anyway) alternative to the store bought fondant…..I think it tastes better too! The roof tiles are cut from the same fondant. I just broke the white fondant into smaller portions and kneaded in Wilton’s gel icing colors to get the desired colors. There should be instructions with the recipe on coloring, rolling out the fondant, etc. Hope this helps!

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  7. Hi! What a beautiful cake! My daughter insists that I try to make this one, eek!! :) I’ve never done a structure before – so can you explain a little more about the dowel rod? Do you use the dowel from the beginning of building your tower? In other words do you wrap your rice krispie treats around the dowel when building it (as opposed to trying to force it through after it’s hardened and you’re ready to put it in the cake)? I’m thinking that’s the only way but I know nothing! :) Thanks so much!!

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  8. Hi! Thanks for the compliment.

    As for the dowel rod, I inserted it through the rice krispy treats after they were shaped and hardened. In reality, I hadn’t originally planned on using a dowel, but the tower was going to be too heavy for the cake……so I had to insert it after it had hardened which was not all that easy.

    This too was my first structure, so I just kind of guessed and adjusted things as I went along…..I made the tower about a week in advance and just kept it wrapped in Saran wrap to try to prevent it from drying out.

    I think if I was to attempt another structure, I would probably try to mold it to its desired shape and insert the dowel rod before the krispy treats harden. I ended up “attaching” the tower to a small cake circle (with frosting) and placed it on the cake……then frosted over the circle for added support and to give it a more support at the base(also because I cut my rod too short :) ).

    Also, if you end up using a dowel rod, I got mine at Lowe’s…..yep, Lowes Home Improvement. It was about 3-4 ft in length but sooooo much cheaper than the dowels in the cake aisles.

    Sorry if I didn’t explain this the best……a little hard to try and explain some of the steps. Please let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll try to answer! :)

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  9. I am about to try this for my grand daughters 4th birthday. I have never done a themed cake before and I really hope I can do it. I have looed at this so many time. I can not wait to start on it. I will be making the tower this week and the actual cake the day of the party next week. Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Thank you for sharing your cake! My 4 year old loves Rapenzul! I used regular & cocoa rice krispies and partially crushed them in a bag(but not into a powder). The mix actually made a good looking tower so I didn’t cover it. But I found that I needed to prop the top while it set so that it would not collapse the tall skinny part. And I used a coated sugar cone for the top. It was a cute cake! Thanks again!

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