Cake with Barbie doll stuck in it - any advice?

[1gglePiggle]

My dd wants one of the cakes with a barbie doll inside it with the cake as the skirt. Has anyone got any experience of making one of these?

I've looked online but all the recipes seem to be American with ready made cake mix and icing. Not sure what sort if tin I'd need either?

My sister did one of these for my niece years ago, and used a Pyrex bowl as the 'skirt.'
Beware though, there were screams of horror from a load of 6 year olds when she pulled the Barbie out in order to cut the cake and they all saw that she had no legs!
And mind the hair when you light the candles!

You can get around the danger of the hair catching alight by stuffing Barbie in head first.

We do a pan that is used for Barbie cakes, and I would suggest (if you bought it - and I can't advertise our company name) a 9 inch Madeira recipe. The pan is a lot narrower at the bottom than at the top, and cooks perfectly well in a conventional oven, or at least an over where the fan has been switched off. If you cannot switch the fan off, then sit it in a Bain Marie and this will prevent the narrow base from cooking too quickly (i,e, before the wider top).

I did one of these for DD many years ago, like clam, in a pyrex bowl. It was pretty easy - just used Victoria sponge and piped buttercream IIRC.
I can't remember any dramas with hair catching fire, and I think I left the legs on.

Actually it was a weird choice from DD as she never liked Barbie and the ones she was given remained in a box in her cupboard till she passed them on

am doing one of these tomorrow, except with a witch hat on top and black fondant icing. Instant witch! I'm going to use a half sphere cake mould from Lakeland, make a Madeira sponge, done.
will let you know how it looks.

nigella has recipe and advice for this in her domestic goddess book, I have a ds who doesn't seem into barbies so I didn't pay much attention, but cake is buttemilk based and tasted good but stood up to plenty if icing which lighter sponge perhaps wouldn't madeira probably would work well too?
best of luck!

Oh yes red car, I have used that Nigella recipe for shaped cakes on the past, it is very good. A spider last year and a ghost before that!

I made one and just stacked up various sized sandwich cakes to make up the skirt - the top one was a large cupcake tin for her hips, then a pudding bowl which made quite a deep section, so I split and filled it, then 2 small sandwich cakes.

I made a small hole all the way through the stack and wrapped Barbie's legs/torso in cling film and shoved her in! I know you can buy those half-doll things from the cake shop but they do look a bit scary when you get them out and this way DD got to keep the new Barbie as an extra prezzy.

I made all the cakes in advance and froze them, then stacked them up, carved off any harsh edges while still frozen (easier to carve while it is solid) and iced when it had defrosted (the icing sweats a bit if you cover it while still frozen).

I've made these a couple of tiems now. I use Nigellas buttermilk birthday cake reciope and just stack lots of layers up, I don't think many pyrex dishes would be deep enough, The sponge is really easy to shape and then just stick on lots of brightly colured butter icing. I would then literally throw a load of glittery balls at it. You just punge barbie into the top of the cake. It works best if you use a doll that has a bodice top as part of the doll if you see what I mean eg barbie ballerina.

Thanks for all the replies!
I was wondering what to do with the legs whether to just shove them into the cake or make a hole all the way through. Guess if the sponge is quite dense then might be better to make a hole?

Will have to google the nigella sponge recipe. I've never done piping before but had seen it on some pictures and it looks good, do you just use buttercream for that? American recipes say cream cheese frosting but that sounds quite rank!

Oranges - where are you getting your witch hat, will you be making it yourself?

I just going to make a hat out of either a bit of rolled up black paper or a bit of shaped black fondant icing, not sure yet.

The problem with me is that I think I have things like this all organised in my head and then realise I haven't actually thought about it properly and have to make it up as I go along.

Use a cookie cutter to cut small circles from the centre of your sponge cakes then wrap the dolls legs tightly in cling film. A cake and a usable doll :)

1gglepiggle, how did it go? my witch cake went really well and was surprisingly straight forward!

It went really well thanks Oranges! I ended up buying a dome shaped tin from Lakeland to do the top layer in the end. Was huge, had about 4 packs of butter in it with the buttercream icing as well!

Mary. Crumb coat the cake then roll the fondant icing into a rectangle not a circle. You will then have plenty to work with to make folds.

Just the normal buttercream recipe but I thin it down slightly with water, not sure if that's the correct way or not but it works for me.