Ella's Modern Barbie Cake (Click any photo to enlarge).

Ella’s “Modern Barbie” party décor matched her invitation "spot on" - so it was only fitting that her cake match, too.  I thought it was so precious when I saw Ella the morning of her big day and after seeing her cake and taking a double look at her attire, she exclaimed, "I match!" 

I’d wanted to do a Modern Barbie cake ever since the first time I stumbled upon the theme last year. Ella had very specific requests in mind for her custom cake: zebra on the bottom, pink on top, a Barbie silhouette somewhere on the cake, and a crown or tiara on top. Her mom, Andi, let me put it together the way I wanted. Believe it or not, you could take those instructions and up with a dozen different looks. The Barbie silhouette was hand-cut with an Exacto knife and the tiara was hand-shaped from gumpaste.  I painted the tiara with edible silver airbrush food coloring (no, I don’t have an airbrush) (yet) and then dusted it with silver luster dust. Click the photo to see a bigger version if you want to see a close-up.  Thanks to Mayen for the hint on how to get a nice, realistic silver look on fondant.  If you don’t know Mayen, you’re missing out – she does wonderful Youtube tutorials and has built a lovely little caking community on Facebook (it’s one of my truly happy places). Meet Mayen here and then come find her on Facebook here and tell her “Peggy Does Cake” sent you. 

Have you ever seen Barbie in the flesh? Ella has!  Barbie made a special appearance at the birthday celebration and I’m 99% sure she was the real deal. Another “special appearance” that grabbed my attention was the little tables and chairs from Little Occasions. Here's a quick peek at the set-up, but you can see lots more about this quaint little company here on Facebook.

Happy birthday sweet Ella. It was an honor to make this special cake for your special day.

Oven's on - I'll be back soon!

~ Peggy