Tracy's Niece's Doll Cake. (August 2001)

I did this one for Tracy's niece. It was my first attempt at a doll cake. I used Wilton's Wonder mold pan, which is nice because it has a heating core built in. I just piped the icing onto the plastic doll and then smoothed it with a finger dipped in corn starch. That worked, but I'm somewhat convinced that the cornstarch is to blame for the color running (see next paragraph). In all, a very nice cake.

Problems: I had a problem with the icing color running, presumably because of the humidity. That's been a major pain for me this summer. Clearly, man was intended to bake only in the winter months. (Dan would certainly agree, because his room is right above the kitchen, so when I bake, the heat just shoots right up there and makes him cranky.) I didn't really find a solution other than to keep the cake refrigerated. I couldn't do much with royal icing, either, due to the moisture in the air. I had wanted to do a butterfly and some flowers, but I just haven't been able to do anything successfully with royal this summer. I also have a problem with this cake, as with the teddy bear cake, in that it's too tall to fit in any of the boxes I have. I don't own a cake carrier, but I've never even seen any that are tall enough for this cake. Maybe I'll ask Mariella about it this Saturday on my weekly Fantes run.