Disney Frozen Cake, Continued

At this point the cake had been coming together quite well, and I was super pumped to add Olaf and Sven. I start with Sven, first gently placing his head in the pile of snow that I had piped out with frosting, which is now dry enough to provide a sturdy base, but still pliable enough to have objects placed in it. Then I added his two front legs, sprawled out in each side, making sure that everything was well-anchored, and that the antlers had enough snow (frosting) behind them to ensure they would not break. Then I made little snowballs out of fondant and placed them all around his head and legs.

Now it was time to add Olaf. I wanted him to be as sturdy as possible, so I decided to put him in a pile of snowballs as well, to help keep him from falling over. I used a toothpick inserted into his body through one of his feet and put the other end of the toothpick into the cake. Then I added some fondant snowballs around him, like I did for Sven, to get a more realistic effect.

My original plan was to somehow give Olaf hands, but that proved to be much too difficult because of how thin they would have to be and therefore very fragile. Instead I opted to let people assume that he has hands, by putting objects in his hands instead. I managed to attach one of the snowflakes to one side and a snowball to the other. Mission accomplished! Unfortunately, in the process, the 3 hairs on his head broke off, not overly surprising but disappointing nonetheless. My solution, which I had no idea how successful it would be, was to go buy some chocolate frosting and pipe that onto his head with a very small tip. As luck would have it, that worked wonderfully; he looked perfect!

I had then intended to put Violet’s name, made of fondant, on the cake board itself. At the last minute I decided to put it on the top layer instead, so that it would be more visible if you’re looking at the cake from the front. I thought propping the “2” up against the pile of snow was a nice touch as well, versus putting it down next to her name.

Even though the cake was supposed to be finished at this point, I decided that it was missing something. The more I looked at it, the more I thought it needed a little more color on the bottom half, and that color should be pink. So I ran out to the store again and bought some ready-to-pipe frosting. Needless to say, at that point I had no intention of making more frosting and I knew it would be such a small portion of the cake, so I wasn’t worried about it affecting the flavor.

As soon as I had piped the last pink dot, I knew that had done it. Now it was perfect. 

The next day we drove down to my grandma’s house, where we would be celebrating. I carried that cake (in a cake box) on my lap the whole way there, guarding it with my life. And when Violet (and my sister) got to see that cake, it made all of the effort and hard work completely worth it. They were ecstatic! Those smiles were all I needed. But I won’t lie, I also enjoyed watching Violet point and shout with joy, diving into the cake the moment her momma let her go, once everyone had gotten their share of pictures. I feel like I’ve set the bar a little high for myself this time. I can only hope my next big cake will turn out this well!