Tartlet 3 just turned 5 yesterday so we had a little princess party. All the girls love the Princess Barbie cakes and each time we pass The Grocery bakery they oooh and aaah over them. So one day as I was putting away dishes from the dishwasher I had a stroke of genius — what if I used the little Polly Pocket princess dolls and baked cupcakes in my little custard cups for the skirt? Then each kid could have her own princess cake *and* instead of spending several dollars per kid on some plastic toy junk and candy for the goody bags, they could take home their dolls which they are likely to want to play with. And that’s how I dreamed up most of a day’s work for myself in party preparation! I was quite fortunate to find that Meijer had the little princess dolls on a 30% off sale. Woot!
The one thing I did to simplify my day was to make the cakes from a mix, because kids are usually far more interested in the frosting than the cake anyway. I mixed a box of white and a box of devil’s food and made marbled cupcakes. It made 15 or 16 custard cup cakes. Additionally, I made a small batch of chocolate gluten free cupcakes (I ended up with 7 of those) because one guest is allergic. Using a template from Open Office, I made flowers from wax paper that would be large enough to hold each cupcake, so I could easily transfer them from the decorating tray to the serving tray to the kids’ plates. I also made one that was a different shape so I could tell which was gluten free because I was sure I’d forget once I started frosting them. I decorated them using mostly the colors that matched the doll, but no two were exactly the same — because that would be such a fashion faux pas! (Not to do with the fact that I didn’t think I could make two that looked the same, naturally!) 
I found it a little difficult to get the base coat on the dresses because my spatula was a bit large for all the curves, but it turned out well enough for a 5 yr old.
And, you know, just because 14 little princesses wasn’t over the top enough, I baked some leftover batter in a candy mold and decorated a mini birthday cake. I used one of the extra cupcakes to hold the candle.
Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
1/2 c. white sorghum
1/2 c. white rice flour
1 c. sugar
5 Tbsp. cocoa
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. buttermilk or soured milk
1/4 c. shortening
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour baking pan or custard cups.
Measure all ingredients into a medium mixing bowl. Beat, scraping the bowl, until mixed and then beat for 2 minutes on high speed.
Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool. Decorate as desired.
More princess cake pictures after the jump.
How cute is that? I don’t know how you do it but that is the cutest idea ever. I know the girls loved them! Great job!!!!!
They are so fantastic! What great idea
Very, very nice idea! I like your princesses, and will keep the idea in mind for my three daughters. You said “decorate as desired”, but what did you decorate it with?
So cute! You did a fantastic job and they look so seamless.
Wow, you have a lot of patience to do so many! I only did one for my daughter!
Shari@Whisk: a food blog
Too adorable! We just bought one of those Princess cakes, too. This would have been much more darling.
These are adorable. What a great idea to use polly pockets. I’m sure the girls will remember these cakes whenever they play with their new dolls. So sweet!
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Sophie
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[...] Cakes I made for Tartlets 1 & 2 for their respective 7th birthdays, and last year I made 14 Polly Pocket Princesses for Tartlet 3’s birthday. This time I made a couple of modifications to my previous [...]