Castle Cake

by Toni Ann White
(Germantown, NY USA)

Castle Cake

Needs:

2 10" square layers
2 6" round layers
1 9 x 13 layer
5 sugar ice cream cones

2 pounds fondant
- 1/2 pounds colored purple
- 1/4 pound colored brown
- the rest leave white

Buttercream icing - 2 batches
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 2 tsp Clear Vanilla
- 2 pounds of confectioner's sugar
- 4 - 6 tbs water (or enough for medium consistency)

A *very* sturdy cake board (this cake is heavy!).

Color about 1/2 cup pink (for flowers). 1/2 cup green and a 1/4 cup black. (Color icing at least the day before to allowing the color to develop).

Bake all the cakes using your favorite cake recipe/mix.

Fill and crumb coast the 2 squares and the 2 rounds.

Using a 2 inch round cookie cutter, cut 12 rounds from the 9 x 13. Using buttercream, stack 3 rounds for each turret. Crumb coat and freeze.

Using purple fondant, wrap each ice cream cone, using a bit of buttercream to secure the fondant to the cone. Using white fondant, wrap the stacked cake rounds.

Before icing the square cake, using a juice glass or small jar, remove the corners of the cake, in order for the turrets to sit flush against the cake. Ice the cake, let it crust.

Place round on a cake board and ice the round layer.

Assembly:

Using dowels, stack the round on the square. Using kabob skewers, cut long enough to support the ice cream cones, place the turrets, drive the skewers into the cake board. Using s bit of buttercream, carefully place the ice cream cones on the turrets and the center of the round.

Let the whole thing set for a couple of hours.

In the meantime, using brown fondant, cut out the door and windows. Let dry, not rock hard.

Again, with a bit of buttercream, place the doors and windows. Using a #3 tip detail those.

Using a #12 tip, border the seams between the ice cream cones and turrets with a bead border. Do the same border around the round tier. Finally, place vines with the #3 tip and the #27 tip make drop flowers with white centers on each turret.

Finally, using the grass tip (#233) make the grass border along the bottom.