Dora Eyes the Butterflies!
A Dora the Explorer themed decorated cake featuring a colorful fondant dress, shoes, and butterfly cookies.
Ingredients
White fondant (dyed separately into 10 oz hot pink, 4 oz yellow, 2 oz violet, 1 oz green, 1 oz light pink; reserve 2 oz white)
20 oz
Buttercream frosting (prepared per recipe, for smoothing and adhering)
to taste
Colored royal icing (prepared per recipe, for outlining and filling)
to taste
Sugar cookie dough (prepared and rolled in advance)
to taste
Food coloring (Dora theme color set: red, pink, brown, Dora skin tone, lemon yellow, golden yellow, violet, rose, royal blue, orange, cyan, Kelly green, black)
to taste
Butterfly plastic cutter (for cutting cookies)
to taste
White and orchid pink pearl dust (for decoration)
to taste
Instructions
1
Make the butterfly cookies in advance
Prepare and roll out the dough, then cut the cookies with the butterfly cutter; bake and let them cool. Use a #3 tip to outline the outer edges and details with full-strength colored icing; flood and fill with thinned colored icing (page 130). Air-dry for 24 hours.
2
Prepare the cake body
Bake the cake and let it cool. Use a knife to level off the top of the shirt, backpack, socks, and shoes. Smooth the sides of the cake, the background areas, the white parts of the eyes, and the body below the waist with buttercream.
3
Outline the details
Use a #3 tip to outline and fill in the details: outline the face, hair, arms, bracelet, eyes, mouth, and nose; fill in the iris, pupils, mouth, tongue, and bracelet (smooth with a finger dipped in cornstarch). Add tiny dot highlights to the eyes.
4
Cover the face
Use a #16 tip to fully cover the face, hair, and arms.
5
Make the fondant shoes
Shape fondant shoes using molds; place them on the cake. Use a #16 tip to fully cover the feet. Cut 2 triangles and small circles to make bows about ¾ inch wide; attach them.
6
Make the dress
Cut a strip ¾ x 3¼ inches for the bodice top, 4 strips ¼ x 3¼ inches for the stripes, and 2 strips ½ x ¾ inches for the shoulder straps. Position and trim them to fit. Roll 4 logs 4 inches long, tapering from ¼ inch to ¾ inch in diameter. Attach the wide ends down onto the skirt area to add dimension. Roll fondant to 1/8 inch thick, use a 10-inch cake circle as a guide to cut a semicircle; gradually taper both sides and the top down to a 5-inch waist. Drape it over the logs to create a full-skirt effect.
7
Decorate the skirt
Cut 3 strips ¼ x 15 inches and attach them to the skirt with a wet brush as decoration. Cut 25 diamonds ¼ x 3/8 inches and attach them to the skirt with a wet brush. Brush the diamonds with white pearl dust and the surrounding skirt with pink pearl dust. Pipe a shell border along the bottom with a #16 tip.
8
Finish
Place the cookies on the cake to finish.
