Tangled - Rapunzel's Tower

My middle daughter is obsessed with Tangled, so when it was coming up to her 3rd birthday I set myself the challenge of making her a Tangled Tower cake. This was the 4th novelty cake I ever made and was a big step up in technique from the previous attempts. I thought I'd put together a quick tutorial to help out anyone planning to do the same (this has been posted before in some of my other non-cake blogs).

Please don't mind the mess in the background of the pictures. I stupidly decided to make this cake and redecorate my kitchen at the same time!

First off I made the cakes. The bottom tier was two all in one cakes and the top tier was three red velvet cakes. I wrapped them several times in clingfilm and froze them as decorating cakes from almost frozen is much easier in my opinion. I did this about two weeks before the main event.

Next I made the tower out of Rice Krispie Treats using this recipe. I used a cocktail shaker, a tea caddy and a bowl as the moulds. 

I put a very fine layer of crisco on the moulds to stop the RKTs from sticking. I left them in the mould for about an hour before loosening with a palate knife. I left them to set for another hour before trimming the bottom so they were flat.

Next I covered the pieces with melted candy melts and attempted to get the sides as smooth as possible (I wasn't entirely successful). 

Next I covered the base of the tower in one layer of grey fondant. I used a texture mat to get a stone effect on it. I stuck it on with a small amount of piping gel. Next I rolled out a section of champagne coloured fondant and cut out sections (so it appeared that the plaster had come away from the stone work). I lightly wet the grey fondant in places to stick the champagne fondant on.

Next I covered the top of the tower in champagne fondant and attached it to the base of the tower using cocktail sticks. I attached the dome of the tower and a polystyrene cone using candy melts.

I used brown fondant to fashion the woodwork on the tower and the window.

Next I cut out squares of pink, purple and blue fondant and allowed them to try for an hour before attaching them to the roof using a paint brush to brush on a very small amount of water. I covered a cocktail stick in fondant and push that into the top of the cone to finish off the spire.

Using a plunger cutter, I cut out fondant flowers and allowed them to dry. I made vines by rolling out green fondant, and again, attached them with water.

I painted random stones on the textured fondant using powdered food colouring mixed with a very small amount of tequila (most people use vodka, I had none, tequila worked fine).

I took the cakes out of the freezer and left them wrapped until partially defrosted (depresses slightly when pressed). I covered in buttercream and chilled for two hours before putting on the fondant. This lady, Laura at Krazy Kool cakes, has some excellent video tutorials on covering cakes.

Finally I used a grass nozzle to pipe royal icing grass around the base of the cakes and I decorated them with fondant flowers.

Voila!