Grateful for the Ride: Disney Frozen Cake-step by step picture tutorial

This is a step by step picture tutorial of how to make a Disney Frozen cake, so if you're not interested in making cakes, just skip this post :). It's a long one! Click here to see another Disney Frozen cake I made with buttercream rosettes on the top tier! I decided to break down the cake making part and include specific steps for that as well, a long with instructions for making fondant. There are lots of pictures because there are lots of steps and cakes take a lot of time. When I made the Disney Frozen cake I did it over several days because I don't ever have large chunks of time, but rather I can usually manage to find a couple of hours a day, while the baby sleeps, as long as I'm willing to let some cleaning and cooking go, which my family, I'm sure, does not appreciate but they enjoy the finished cake product :). Alright, so here we go:

Wednesday (day 1 of 4):

-Make candy 'ice', fondant and butter cream frosting.

Recipe for candy ice that I used from AllRecipes:

This recipe may not work when it’s humid outside… the humidity level can alter the way the candy sets up.

Author: Rachel recipe from AllRecipes

Ingredients

3¾ cups white sugar (must be white granulated sugar)
1½ cups light corn syrup
1 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon, or other flavored
extract-( make sure that you use a non colored extract or it will tint the finished product)
½ teaspoon food coloring (optional) I used 4 to 5 drop of NEON food coloring from McCormick and a drop of teal gel food coloring from Wilton… I could have just used the blue NEON and had similar results.

Instructions

In a medium saucepan, stir together the white sugar, corn syrup, and water. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until sugar dissolves, then bring to a boil. Without stirring, heat to 300 to 310 degrees F (149 to 154 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms hard, brittle threads.
Remove from heat and stir in flavored extract and food coloring, if desired. Pour onto a greased cookie sheet. Let cool, and break into large pieces that resemble broken ice. Store in an airtight container.

In order to get the liquids to 300-310 degrees I found that it needed to boil for about 20 minutes. I removed it from the heat as soon as it got above 300 degrees. From here you need to work quickly. Have a rimmed cookie sheet (jelly roll pan) out lined with parchment paper. I also sprayed it with Pam. Immediately mix in your color and flavored extract and then quickly but carefully (remember, really hot!) pour out the liquid onto the cookie sheet and move pan around so that it'll spread all over pan. If you need to use a large spoon to help that's fine, but move quickly because it'll start to harden immediately as it cools.

I had hot pads under my pan because it gets really hot. Allow it to sit on your counter and cool completely. Then you can break it up and store it in an airtight container or Ziploc bags. I wanted big pieces for my cake which wouldn't fit in any Ziploc or Tupperware I owned so once mine cooled down I just covered it with saran wrap and I kept it that way until Saturday when I added it to the finished cake.

Next you'll want to make up some fondant. I like marshmallow fondant or MMF. Here is the recipe I use:
Marshmallow Fondant
10.5 oz mini white marshmallows
2-3 Tbsp water
6 c powdered sugar
1 Tbsp Crisco (this is just to grease your hands while you knead so have it in a bowl that's easily accessible.)

Melt mini marshmallows and 2 tbsp. water in microwave by placing in micro for 30 second intervals and stirring in between, repeating until melted. Dump 4 cups powdered sugar into marshmallows and stir with large spoon. Once combined stir in more powdered sugar. Keep stirring until fondant gets a little dry. Now grease your hands and knead fondant. You'll knead for about 5 minutes. Add a little water, a teaspoon at a time, and knead if you need to. You want it to get to a smooth elastic ball that will stretch without tearing. If you see tiny bits of powdered sugar, knead and maybe add a few drops of water. To store, coat with Crisco, wrap in plastic wrap or parchment paper and put in a Ziploc bag, squeezing all air out. It can be stored in fridge or on counter for several days.

Once I finished my fondant, my candy ice had cooled and when I moved it to another spot in the kitchen, a few cracks formed on their own which was perfect for my ice castle creation.

The last thing I did on Day 1 was to make my butter cream frosting. I made a double batch and had some leftover. Here is the recipe I used:
2 c Crisco (not butter flavored, it needs to be white)
2 lbs powdered sugar (8c)
2 Tbsp Meringue powder (you can buy this at Michaels, it helps the frosting set up and get crusted over enough that you can smooth it out)
8 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp butter extract
1/2 tsp almond extract(you don't have to use butter and almond extract; could use all vanilla instead)
Cream together for a couple of minutes until light and fluffy. I took out a couple of cups and put it in a separate bowl and then colored everything else a light blue color.

And I thought I should document what my kitchen looks like on days like this :). Disastrous! Stuff everywhere! Kids lunch stuff left out, dirty dishes, cake supplies everywhere.

Thursday (Day 2 of 4)
-bake, cut, stack, and frost cakes.

You will bake 2 9inch cakes and 2 6inch cakes. Line each cake pan with parchment paper and then spray with "Pam with flour". Be sure to get the sides of pans.

You can buy 'bake even cake strips' from michaels or other arts/crafts stores. I like these because my cakes come out fairly level which means I'll only have to cut a little off the top rather than a lot which will make my cakes not as tall and pretty. Follow the directions for the bake even strips by soaking them in cold water, ringing them out and then wrapping them around your cake pans.

Mix up your cake batter according to directions and then fill cake pans a little over half way full.

Bake in preheated oven and then let sit for ten minutes in pan before turning them onto cooling racks.

Allow cakes to cool completely before you frost them.

Make sure you have some cardboard cake circles ready, a six inch and a nine inch circle, so that once your cake is cool you can put it on your tinfoil wrapped cake circle. I cut out my own from diaper boxes or other cardboard boxes I have lying around. Just trace the bottom of your cake pan onto the cardboard and cut it out.

Next you'll want to level your cake. This is very important if you want a cake that's not leaning or tilted. A couple of times I haven't been as careful with my leveling as I should have been and I sorely regret it later. Ask my hubby. I can't stop ~~whining~~ talking about it when that happens!

Then you'll put a layer of frosting on one of your leveled cakes and then stack the other leveled cake on top of it. The leveled parts should be facing each other.

Frost the cakes. If you're getting way too many crumbs, first do a crumb coat where you frost a thin layer, stick it in the fridge for 20 minutes and then frost a thicker layer over top. I don't usually do this just because I've had so much practice that I can do it without the crumb coat, but a crumb coat might be a wise idea.

Once it's all iced, let it sit out for about 20 minutes to allow that meringue powder to do it's thing. This will allow the frosting to crust over just enough that you can smooth the cake with parchment paper or I like to use a mini foam paint roller. I don't actually ever use it for painting. Just for cake smoothing.

Looks much better now!

I lightly covered my 2 cakes with a little saran wrap just to keep them from collecting any dust. And that's day 2!

Friday (Day 3 of 4)

-Roll out fondant, put buttercream details on cake

I took out a chunk of fondant, maybe a cups worth, and rolled it out onto parchment paper (it'll stick more to the table and to wax paper). I used my pans to judge the size. I wanted it just a little bigger than the pans, but not so big that I couldn't write on the cakes in butter cream. I used a pizza cutter to go around the edges....going for a 'snow' look.

The top of the frosting was dry so I used just a tiny bit of water on a paintbrush to stick the fondant to the cake.

Once the fondant is in place, you can do the writing or other butter cream details.

Saturday (day 4 of 4)

-stack cakes, finishing touches

Saturday a couple of hours before the party I stacked the cakes onto my cake board, put a border on(tip 10 circle for top and tip 12 circle for bottom/base), frosting on the board for snowy look.