tinkerbell cake

The Tinkerbell Cake – Since I posted a picture of this cake on the Cake Decorating page about a year ago, I’ve had numerous requests for step by step instructions, and I’ve always complied with a summarized version via email. So, here it is, finally, a detailed version! The Tinkerbell Cake is one of the most popular cakes amongst little girls, I get quite a few requests for this one, for obvious reasons! I’ve made it many times, both with fondant and buttercream, so any of you with little girls who love Tinkerbell, I must say, this is one very cute and fancy cake!

Recipes for Madeira Cake and Buttercream Icing can be found by clicking on the individual links.

First, we’ll look at the fondant version, then the all buttercream one. Check out the Cake Decorating for all things cake and click on the individual links for Covering Cakes and Dowelling.

We’ll be doing things in this order: Cover the board, fill the cakes, stack the cakes then the final decoration.

Fondant Covered Tinkerbell Cake  

What you’ll need:

1 x 10 inch square Madeira cake

1 x 7 inch round Madeira cake

3 portions buttercream icing

2.5 – 3 kg green fondant icing

smooth/no bits raspberry or strawberry jam

blue, green and pink food colouring

Equipment

1 x 13 inch cake board

1 x 7 inch cake card

small sharp knife

scissors

palette knife

toothpick

piping bag

piping nozzles – medium closed star, small small closed star, small round (no.2), small leaf

dowels

2 or 3 Tinkerbell characters, about 3-4 inches tall

tiny garden insects, optional

blue edible glitter, optional

Covering the board

To cover or not to cover? Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t! A cakeboard that’s covered with fondant gives a more complete and professional finish but not everyone likes the extra icing. If you don’t fancy all that fondant, finish the cake on the board, then roll out a layer of fondant and drape the paste around the board. Follow the other instructions the same way.

1. If you are going to cover it, knead about 500g of the green fondant until smooth. Roll out, using spacers if needed, to a thickness of about 4mm.

2. Moisten the 13″ cake board all over with a little water or edible glue.

3. Lift the fondant with your rolling pin and drape over the cake board.

4. Gently smooth the fondant with the smoother in a circular motion.

5. Using a small sharp knife (I use a paring knife), cut the excess fondant, keeping the edges vertical, in line with the board. Leave to dry.

The Cakes

1. Take the 7″ cake card and place it upside down on the corner of the large cake with the edge hanging off one corner of the square cake slightly.

2. Mark out the edge of the lower cake on the card and cut off with scissors. You’ll end up with an irregular shape with the straight sides lining up with the 10″square cake.

3. Next, place the 8″ round cake upside down and place the cut card upside down on the inverted cake.
4. Now, we are going to cut the cake to match the card. Use a small sharp knife. Keep the offcuts for tea – great for dunking or even trifles!

5. Time to fill both cakes. Level the top of both cakes, see Madeira Cake recipe for tips. Slice around to trim the brown crust if you want, I don’t bother because I happen to like it.

6. Let’s start with the small cake. Place it on the cake card neatly and very carefully, slice the cake in half by using a very long/large bread knife, cutting into and around the cake as you go along. Don’t cut straight across as you might end up with uneven cuts. Cutting around the cake allows you to keep the knife level constantly. If it helps, insert toothpicks around the cake, equidistant from the base of the cake. Use a ruler and measure!

slicing the cake in half

7. Carefully, lift the top half and place it on the side.

8. Using a palette knife, start filling the cake with the buttercream. Using a to and fro movement, spread it all over the cake, up to the edges.

9. Follow with jam.

10. Very gently, lift the top half of the cake and place over the cream/jam, aligning top and bottom as much as you can. Do this for both cakes.

11. Ok, folks, let’s cover the cakes. Follow instructions on the Covering Cakes with Fondant page.

12. Ready to stack? Read up the Dowelling Cakes page first on step by step on dowelling. The dowels are going in one corner of the 10″ square cake (the base cake).

13. Now smear a little buttercream in the middle of the 4 dowels and very carefully, place the small cake on top of the base cake. Line up the top cake’s straight sides with the base cake’s sides. Don’t worry about the gap between the top and bottom cakes as we will be covering it with piped icing. You are now ready to decorate as you want!

Decorating the Tinkerbell Cake

1. First, you need to have the the leftover buttercream coloured into the colours you’re using. Here, I’ve got blue for the water, green for the vines and pink for the flowers. Keep just about half a teaspoon’s worth of the plain cream colour for finishing touches later.

2. Using a small offset spatula, spread some of the blue icing on the cake, starting from the top and spilling over onto the board, resembling waterfall and river as in picture. Keep it fairly narrow with perhaps a slight pond on the top cake. Don’t worry too much about keeping it too neat as you’ll be piping around it.

3. Use the tip of the spatula to create patterns resembling waves all down the length of the “water”.

4. Fit the large star nozzle in a piping bag and fill the bag with the green buttercream icing. Pipe a border all around the river, stopping at the point where the cake meets the board, leaving a free fall of water on the board. You can pipe flowers or drag them to pipe shells, that’s up to you.

5. We are now going to pipe a border around the base of both cakes. This will cover the space between the two cakes.

6. Another piping bag with the round no.2 nozzle and fill it with more green buttercream.  Pipe vines of different lengths and sizes from the base of the large cake, curling the ends for effect. You can do the same with the top cake if you wish although I prefer to leave the sides of the small cake blank.

7. Next, fit the small star nozzle in another piping bag and fill it with the pink buttercream. Pipe tiny flowers all around in strategic spots all over the cake, along the vines and the borders. You could of course, cut out pink fondant flowers and stick them on.

8. Pipe a pink flower border on the top of the small cake too.

9. Using the small leaf nozzle, pipe some leaves along the vines.

10. Place the Tinkerbell figurines strategically on the cake. One at the top of the cake looking down, is always effective. Arrange the tiny insects around the cake as you see fit.

11. Using a toothpick, dab tiny bits of the plain coloured icing on the waves on the river to resemble foam.

12. If you wish, sprinkle a tiny dab of blue edible glitter along the river. Best way to do this: dab your forefinger in the glitter, get rid of excess over the sink and hold your fingers very close over the blue icing as you sprinkle what little is left on your fingers. Getting close to the blue ensures as little as possible gets on the green.

Buttercream Covered Tinkerbell Cake 

Everything is the same apart from needing an extra portion of buttercream icing. Tint 2 and a half portions of the buttercream green for the coats.

After the first layer of buttercream, place the cakes in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Then spread the second layer of green buttercream all over the cakes, smoothing it out as best as you can.

Leave the buttercream smooth or make patterns using the tip of your small palette knife.

Finish the cake as above.

If you have any questions, drop me a line or leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you! xx