Let her make cake!

I made this cake for Sophia T. in my ward. She was having a pink puppy themed 5th birthday.
I auctioned off a fancy cake as part of a Relief Society service auction. Sister T. didn't win, but mentioned that she wished she had so Soph could have a pink Barbie cake. I'm a sucker, and I actually really like Sophia...so I said I'd do it anyway. When it came down to time to do it, Sister T. gave me this magazine clipping for a puppy cake. "Do you think you can do this? She really wants this instead of the doll cake now."
"Oh, yeah, no problem." Seriously? Luckily, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.



In fact, it turned out really well. I used just a boxed fudge brownie mix because I wanted it to be dense. My mom gave me the tip *freeze cake you plan to cut to reduce crumbling and give sharper edges.* Thank you, mom! I hadn't thought about that!

I used a six inch round pan to bake the brownie that formed the rear, head, legs, ear, and tail poof. The tail itself is just a piping of butter cream frosting. I used a little glass dish to bake the main body part.
The embellishments (ie. eye lashes and nose) are chocolate sprinkles. I just did a squeeze of frosting and placed the sprinks where I wanted them. The fur effect is pink colored coconut. I refrosted those spots and pressed the coconut into the still soft frosting.

I figured that the dog needed someone to walk it, and the brownie wasn't very big...
That and I really wanted to make another doll cake! I used a standard silver cake recipe for her skirt and baked it in a Pyrex type bowl. I didn't consider that the batter wouldn't raise the same way a box cake does, so she was a little short. Luckily, again, I'd made a small round cake for something else that served as an impromptu pedestal.

















I bought a little frame stand at Michael's so the pup would stand up. He turned out way bigger than the girl, but Sophia and her mom loved it, so that was all that really mattered!

P.S. Did you notice that I now know how to make grey icin'? Pretty cool. Now, if I just had the counter space...