Vanilla Sour Cream Cake
Ingredients:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 F. In a standing mixer, blend the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time, and the vanilla, until pale and a little frothy. In a separate bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients, and in a separate cup, mix together the remaining wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients alternatively to the butter mixture on low speed. Pour into your dolly cake mold and bake for 30 minutes. Crank the oven up to 350 and bake for another 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool before frosting.
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup white chocolate, melted and cooled
Directions:
Cream the cream cheese in an electric mixer until light and a little fluffy, add the butter, beating for 1 to 2 minutes, or until combined. Add the cooled white chocolate, and beat until combined. Add the brown sugar, pinch of salt and vanilla extract, and beat until combined. Turn the mixer to low and add the powdered sugar (make sure the mixer is on a low speed, so you don't end up wearing all the frosting).
Decoration Directions:
For both cakes, take any blonde doll of your choice and adjust her hair/makeup to match the model on the runway or whatever friend you're making the cake for. Sharpies work perfectly for the makeup, a little black icing is great for creating roots, and cocoa powder is perfect for dirty blonde hair, just experiment and find what works best for you.
How to: The Balenciaga Dress:
As the dress is a simple shift, adjust the shape around the doll's cinched was by gluing two pieces of coffee filters cut to fit the space inside the waist. To create the color blocks on the dress, melt about 1/2 cup of white chocolate and separate into two bowls. Mix one to a bright yellow color with food coloring (use a combo of yellow and light green, to avoid a cheddar cheese color), and leave the other white. Pour onto a baking sheet covered with a silicon pad, spreading with a spatula to about 1/8" thick. When hard, slice the white chocolate with an Xacto knife (or any small knife) into the rectangular shapes on the dress. Cover the doll's torso and arms with white icing (powdered sugar with a few drops of water; use toothpicks to apply with precision) and position the pieces of white chocolate accordingly. Next, cover the remaining parts of the torso with pulverized Oreo cookies (I used a food processor to get it very fine). Cut off the doll's legs at the knees and pop the torso into cake. Frost the cake with a thick layer of frosting and place the blocks of color. Cover remaining parts with the crushed Oreo cookies. Dye some of the frosting black, and with a very fine tipped pastry bag draw a black line along the right side of the dress (this is the zipper), and with frosting dyed yellow, put a thin line on top of that. Top with a brass zipper head at the top. Enjoy!
How to: The Christopher Kane Dress:
With white icing (powdered sugar with a few drops of water) cover the space between the doll's neck and chest (use toothpicks to apply icing for precision). With a small paint-brush dipped in black food coloring, paint the gingham pattern on. On the chest, dot each breast with white butter cream and carefully smooth out. Paint the breasts with the gingham pattern, too. With the white icing or a fine-tipped pastry bag filled with butter cream, dry a tiny line of piping under each breast. Cover the sides of the stomach and back with icing, and paint gingham on there, too. Cut off the doll's legs at the knees and pop torso into cake. Frost the cake with white frosting, and with a larger brush paint the gingham pattern, making it smaller toward the center of the cake, and slightly at a diagonal of each other. Voila!
R29 Giveaway:
Claire Thomas of Kitchy Kitchen is more than a whiz with dolly cakes, she also has her own amazing food website and line of goods. Tell us what resort '11 look you would like to see transformed into a dolly cake and our fave answer get hooked up with a delish basket of summer goodies from the Kitchy Kitchen.