Barbie Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Icing

After much demand from my friends and my husband, today’s post is about a cake and this post has been sitting in my draft since past couple of weeks. I made  this barbie cake two weeks ago for my little one’s birthday who is a die hard barbie fan… :).

When her birthday was nearing, she promptly demanded a barbie cake. As I am not a professional baker, I was in a dilemma on where to start and how to go about it. And my search for barbie cakes started and after so much of googling and going through dozens of blogs, videos etc., I was able to gather the process which resulted in a beautiful cake.

I made the basic cake a chocolate one and I filled the layers and covered with ganache and sugar syrup so that the cake turns into a chocolate truffle cake.  I made a hole in the center of the cake by using an oval shaped cutter for the barbie to squeeze in.

Filling the layers using ganache

Before inserting a barbie doll into the center of the cake, measure the length of the lower part of the barbie i.e from the waist to the toes and then bake cakes accordingly. For some barbie cakes we require to make 3 cakes and for some four. I made four cakes and then cut each cake into two layers. My cake was an eight layered chocolate truffle cake which is covered with strawberry buttercream icing to look just like a barbie’s layered gown.

I never expected that one day I will make a barbie cake which looked so awesome, which even I couldnt believe I did :-). For decorations you can put fondant flowers or use different coloured icing or sprinkle some silver balls around the buttercream.

If I can make a barbie cake, I am sure you can also bake one and surprise you little ones ...

Ingredients:

Chocolate Truffle Cake

1. Flour- 1 Cup
2. Cocoa Powder- ⅓ Cup
3. Baking Powder- 1 tsp
4. Salt- as per taste
5. Eggs- 3 nos
6. Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp
7. Butter- ½ Cup
8. Sugar- 1 Cup
9. Milk- ⅓ Cup

Sugar Syrup:

1. Water- ½ Cup
2. Sugar- 5 tbsps

Method:

• Boil water and add sugar. Stir for some time and remove from flame. Let it cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache:

1. Heavy Cream- 1 Cup
2. Chocolate Pieces- 1 ½ Cups

Method:

• Heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat and just when it starts boiling remove from flame and add the chocolate pieces. Stir well till all the pieces are melted and blended properly.
• Allow the ganache to cool.

Method for chocolate cake:

1. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt trice. Keep this aside.
2. In a clean glass bowl beat the eggs along with vanilla essence till it turns creamy and light.
3. In another glass bowl beat the butter and sugar well using a hand mixer. Add the egg mixture to the butter mixture and beat well in one direction till all the ingredients are well incorporated.
4. In the above mixture, alternatively fold the flour and milk till well blended (in one direction). Pour this cake batter in a greased cake bowl.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Bake the cake for about 30- 40 min or till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
6. Remove the cake from oven and let it cool completely before building the barbie cake.
7. Using this measurement, prepare two more cakes to complete the full barbie dress.
8. In this the top most cake that starts from the hip of the barbie, should be made in a glass bowl which has a curved bottom. So that when the cake is inverted from the glass bowl it will look like a dome shape.

For the barbie:

• Wrap the lower half body  and the hair of the barbie with a cling film, so that when it is inserted in the cake it won't get spoiled and it will prevent staining from the food.

Make hole in the middle of the cake:

1. Make a hole in the center of each cake using a sharp knife or with an oval shaped cutter and make sure that the barbie inserts in the hole properly.
2. Make each cake into 2 layers and place the base i.e one of the cake on the cake board and sprinkle some sugar syrup and then spread the prepared chocolate ganache. Place the next layer of cake and repeat the process. Stack the cake one after the other alternatively sprinkling the sugar syrup and spreading the ganache, ending the cake layer with the dome type cake.
3. When all the layers of the cake are stacked properly, cover the entire cake using this ganache.
4. Place this ganache covered cake in the refrigerator for about half an hour.
5. After taking out from the refrigerator insert the barbie in the cake and decorate with buttercream icing.

Covering the cake using ganache

Buttercream icing:

1. Beat the icing sugar, butter and strawberry essence till light and fluffy. Divide the batter into the ratio of one third to the two thirds. Add a few drops of pink colour to the two third of teh icing and fill these in two piping bags with a zigzag nozzle.
2. Pipe the basic buttercream on to the cake as shown in the pic and cover the remaining portion of the cake from base to the top, until you reach the barbie’s waist.

Decoration on Barbie cake:

• Decorate with silver balls on to the barbie cake by placing them randomly. Remove the cling film from the barbie’s hair.
• Now the barbie cake is ready for the birthday party.