The Making of Frozen Castle Cake

One day when I was inside a steamy swimming pool building, waiting for my children while they have lessons, I received an enquiry to make a cake based on the latest Disney production, Frozen. Wow, I knew it was a hot favourite theme for cakes and parties, so I'm really proud to be able to get a part of this action. But when I saw the picture that was sent to me of what the birthday girl wanted, I froze.

It was a castle cake with 5 huge towers. Based on the number of people it was to serve, we decided that only the base of the castle would be real cake and the rest of the towers would be dummy. However I have no idea how to make them....Thus began my quest to learn how to make fake castle towers. I had to learn real quick too, for depending on what the construction material was gonna be and how complex it was to make it, I have to give a quote.

Thank God for a Facebook group for cake decorators! I posted the photo online to see what other decorators would use and I got a variety of answers from styrofoam, to PVC pipes to krispy treats etc. After several rounds of research, here are what my towers were made of: 2x 90mm PVC pipes, 2x Pringles potato chips tubes and a 2 litre SOLO plastic soda bottle.

The PVC pipes were washed and sawed to the correct height with the help of hubby. I chopped up 2 Pringles bottles and the SOLO plastic bottle easily with a pen knife and scissors. 

Each of these towers were wrapped in white fondant. I then use the cobblestone impression mat all around. They were then individually hand-painted with a tint of blue edible ink diluted with vodka. To make it look like they have been frozen crystal solid, I brushed randomly, making sure not to cover evenly and to leave traces of white all over. The overall effect was awesome! I enjoyed painting it so much, but I had to stop myself, reminding myself that less is more.

When the day came for the actual cake to be decorated, I was really looking forward. It was a chocolate mud cake inside and I had baked it nice and tall. By then, I had decided to deviate from the picture the customer showed me, to add in my own design elements and to make it even better than the original. I decided to add in a flight of steps leading to the main tower. 

To make the steps, I cut off a wedge of the cake, about 1/3 of the way. Starting from the bottom step, the wedge of cake was subdivided and reattached with chocolate ganache. After that, I basically cover it the same way as the tower, imprint with cobblestone print and paint.

Lastly add the cut-out fondant snowflakes and pipe drips of icing hanging from the towers to simulate snow fall. I also purchased some really cool frosty lollies that looked like ice balls to place around the castle. The cake board was scattered with dessicated coconut to make is look like snow.

The final cake castle was really heavy but I was so proud to deliver it. :)