Monday, March 3, 2014

Disney's Frozen: A Couture Cake

NOTE: Sara’s blog has moved to a new location: http://saraelizabethcakes.com. Feel free to browse around my tutorials here, then come check out my new site!

I'm one of the millions who think that Disney's Frozen movie is one of the best things out there since sliced bread cake.

I'd been dying to do a Frozen cake based on Anna or Elsa's beautiful dresses, so when I got a request for an "Elsa Frozen cake" for an Icing Smiles recipient (complete with a pass to do whatever design I wanted), I knew just what to do!


I wanted a more abstractly designed cake: Ombre fondant ruffles represent a fabric texture and the multi-dimensional coloring of Elsa's dress, while the sugar gems on the top tier mimic the jeweled, shimmering appearance of the bodice. 


The snowflake topper, same as the one in the movie posters, brings the breath of winter, the vibe of the movie. To make this, I printed off an image of the snowflake from the movie, cut it out and laid it on a thinly rolled piece of gumpaste, and then, using a disposable scalpel (used only for cakes, LOL!), traced/cut around it. After mounting it on a thick floral wire, I allowed it to dry. Finally, it was painted using Americolor gel food coloring, mixed with vodka. 


The ombre ruffles are strips of fondant, rolled out thin through a pasta roller. The edges were slightly thinned/ruffled using the ball tool, then applied to the cake. If you haven't done ruffles before, I highly recommend the class that I took to learn how to create ombre fondant ruffles: Maggie Austin's Fondant Frills class on Craftsy. 


The gems are made from melted Isomalt, poured into a hard candy gem mold. You can find the exact mold that I used here at Global Sugar Art. If you haven't worked with isomalt before, Elizabeth Marek, from Artisan Cake Company has an excellent video tutorial and written directions on her blog.

To get the gems to really shine, give them (and your entire cake) a very light steaming when with a mini-steamer or iron, AFTER your cake is complete and gems are applied. 

My Olaf figure, based on the most endearing character in the movie, was made from fondant, dried, and then hand-painted in the same manner as the snowflake. He brings some fun to this cake! He needs several days to dry, so plan ahead!




I used pictures and the figure that came with my daughter's Frozen dolls to refer to for general shape and size. 

The fondant snowflakes on top of the cake were made with a fondant cutter/plunger by PME, which you can also find here at Global Sugar Art.


That's it! All my tips and tricks for a gorgeous wintery Frozen cake. If you try it, leave a comment below and let me know how it goes! I'm also happy to answer any questions. You can leave them here, or for a quicker response, message me on my FB page: www.facebook.com/SaraElizabethCakesandSweets.


A huge "Thank You" to Michelle Atkinson, of Lena Michelle Photography for the gorgeous photos! Check out her blog for even more photos of my cake!

Happy Caking!

36 comments:

  1. Love the cake! What colors did you use to color the fondant?

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    1. It's been a while, so I don't recall 100%… But I know that I primarily used Americolor Sky Blue gel. From there, I mixed in other colors to try and match the darkest color in Elsa's dress. I probably incorporated Americolor's Electric Blue (really similar to Sky Blue, so probably not necessary), and their Navy blue gel. I think I might have also added in some Wilton Leaf Green to give it more of a teal-ish hue. Once I got my darkest color right, I broke off half of it (saving half for the bottom ruffles), and used the other half to mix with larger and larger ratios if white fondant to create my ombré hues. Grab a photo of Elsa, and start mixing, adding colors a little at a time, and you'll be golden! Good luck! :)

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    2. Thank You! I want to try and make this cake for my daughter's birthday in October. With the isomalt do you color it when it's still a liquid, or do you paint the color on the gems after they dry?

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    3. I love your cakes! In June I used your tutorial to make a cake like your Ombré ruffle one with buttercream, so thank you!

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    4. You're so welcome! I'm glad it helped. :)
      For the isomalt gems, I used Wilton's candy food coloring in blue, mixing it into the melted isomalt before pouring into the molds. You can find it at Walmart, I believe, or Amazon: http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=1913-1299

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