Last weekend was Ainsley's
Tangled birthday party.
We had it at the pool, which other than carrying all the stuff there and back, made it incredibly easy. No worries about having the house perfect to host a party. There was just a small area that I needed to decorate and have ready.
It also took all the pressure off party food and extreme decorations.
We did frozen burgers and dogs, chips and fruit. Then we bought some balloons, streamers and table cloths. Oh and I got some paper lanterns to mimic the floating lanterns in the movie.
Actually, the only thing I really worked at was the cake. And this was going to be a tall order since Ainsley had requested...and I quote..."Can I have a cake with a tower and Rapunzel in the tower with her hair out the window blowing in the wind? And Flynn Rider is climbing up the side of the tower with his stick and Maximus and Pisaul are playing in the water?"
Um...yeah...
When I lived in Richmond, I had this awesome friend Heather. She bakes and decorates amazing cakes.
Look here. She made me cakes for showers and engagement parties. And she made
Ainsley's birthday cake last year.
So when it was time to find a
Tangled cake, I didn't know where to start. Heather lived too far now. Big sad face :(
But I had made
Ainsley's first birthday cake.
And I had made the
cupcakes for Freddie's first birthday.
So I was ready to tackle the Tangled cake. I emailed Heather for advice.
And, I think it turned out pretty well. What do you think?
Want to know how I did it? Instructions below.
Tangled Birthday Cake
The cake was the easy part. All you gotta do is open those boxes and mix with oil, water and eggs.
Bake and done. I cooled them overnight.
I also baked a small round cake for part of the tower.
Constructing the tower was a bit more difficult.
Two nights before the party, I made rice Krispy treats.
Half of them were wrapped around a wooden dowel, covered in Saran wrap and placed in the fridge. We ate the other half :)
On the morning of the party, I covered the two cakes in green icing.
I then cut a hole out of the cake to place the rice Krispy treat tower in. Note: I thought I could just stick the dowel in the cake, but it turned out to be too heavy. So I pushed the dowel to the top, cut out a larger circle in the cake and stuck the entire tower into the cake.
Next I needed to add the circular room that Rapunzel spends her days sweeping and painting and baking in. This is where the small round cake comes in.
I cut the edges to make it more cylindrical. I used the cut off pieces to kind of prop the tower up a bit at the base, and give it more of a shape.
Next I covered the tower in gray icing. I used a toothpick to add texture and give the tower a stone look.
Note: It is not easy to get gray icing. I mixed brown and purple. The trick was adding blue. Kind of reminded me of
Steel Magnolias and the gray armadillo cake!
Then I placed the cylindrical cake on the top of the dowel. I painted it brown - it looked like peanut butter.
To finish the structure of the tower I added a sugar cone to the top, covered in purple icing.
Now it was time to decorate.
I added a window and iced flowers and ivy all over the tower.
Finally, I had bought some little
Tangled figurines. I placed them on the cake.
I wrote Happy Birthday in pink and then wrote Ainsley in yellow with the hair tip and extended it over the cake, around Flynn Rider and connected it to the Rapunzel figurine.
Voila...
Tangled Cake!
I called Ainsley in to take a look. I picked her up and she studied the cake.
"So Ainsley, do you like the cake?" I asked.
With a very concerned look on her face, she responded "Yeah, but...why isn't Rapunzel in her tower?"
Look kid, I'm an amateur...cut me some slack!
