A princess cake for my birthday princess

Last Tuesday was Alex's fourth birthday and we had her birthday party this afternoon. And since it was a princess party, and Alex loves everything to do with princesses, I made a Belle cake.

It was a lot easier to do than I thought it would be. First, I baked the cake in a Pampered Chef measuring bowl following these directions. Then, I coloured a whole lot of icing yellow and used an icing tip to pipe it onto the cake.

This was the best decision I made. It was super easy to put on and avoided the crummy mess you get from trying to slather the icing on top of chocolate cake.

Next, with a some help from Ryan, I added a little detailing to the skirt with a darker shade of yellow icing.

And finally, I added the piece which brought it all together -- the doll. But first she needed some clothes. So, using a glue gun and yellow ribbon from the dollar store I wrapped her in a dress. A little extra white ribbon, some beads from Alex's bead collection, the crown from her Belle Barbie and voilà....Belle:

Most importantly, Alex was absolutely thrilled with her Belle cake.