Dolly…in cake!

Who can watch Great British Bakeoff & not want to make their own face cake? I’m a baker of things…I have the bits necessary…why not?

My dear friend needed a last minute place to stay while in limbo between two apartments so what better time to tackle a new challenge than 24 hours holed up in a studio apartment with a three-legged cat? Dolly Cake 1.0 was born.

Halloween time brought a silicone skull mold across my path & I couldn’t pass it up. I’ve been tending towards Gluten Free for a while so I settled on two different GF cake mixes- both mochi…I think. (This was pre-oven hack discovery of keeping a pot of boiling water on stovetop to regulate oven temperature so I’m of the theory these cakes could have turned out…less dense- but the Dolly is the thing!)

For Dolly, it was quickly decided that she needed different cakes for hair & face/skull. Obviously. While the skull & the two straight-sided 9” pans were baking I started the fondant. I priced it around town & was less than impressed. Upon looking up the recipe it was just too easy to make at home for the amount we potentially needed. With a double boiler & my Mable (Kitchen Aide Bowl-lift stand mixer) it was too easy. I made way too much for the project (& it proved useful in the end when cakepops entered the mix).

Dolly is a magical being. Accordingly we felt Dolly 1.0 needed some magic in her literal skull(cake). I love the candy isle with an open mind. Metallic pink cordial filled chocolates were an easy choice. & pretty darn delicious.

My bakeoff-watching self new that a layer of buttercream was needed between cake & fondant to make it look as smooth as possible.

Finishing features were a team effort. I built structure.

After first slices of Dolly 1.0 were enjoyed we discovered a challenge. Nobody, rightfully, wanted to eat Dolly’s face. That paired with so much cake with so little time, dolly cake-pops were born. The mochi cakes were moist enough with the assembly frosting that additional stickiness wasn’t required. (aka Dolly 1.0 had to be skinned).

I had also never made cake pops before- let alone GF & covered in fondant. The immersion blender really was my favorite tool on this bake. Between pulverizing cake bits for feature building & the cake pop shaping, it saved so much time (& frustration).

All in, lots of lessons were learned along with a delicious & beautiful bake. The evolution of feature sculpting was my biggest take-away (make the cake-medium as smooth & dry as possible!)
I’m very excited for Dolly Cake 2.0.