Magical Princess Hat Cake

I had been wanting to try this wizard hat cake I saw on Nick Jr for the longest time, but decided to do it my own way. It turned out totally cute looking, but I guess kids don't like fondant because most of them scraped it off (except my kids, they love anything sugary). It took me three days to complete (in stages) and was so much fun for me. I wish I could work at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore.

I started out by using a pound cake mix and baking it in a glass two cup measuring bowl, a small glass bowl and some ramekins. I stacked them together and glued them using apricot preserves (heated and strained to get the chunks out). Then I stuck a sugar cone on top for the peak of the hat. 

The fondant started out white and I dyed it with Wilton gel food coloring and rolled it out to cover the whole cake. To make the ribbons, I dyed more fondant, printed it with a cheese grater to make some subtle texture, cut them into strips and curled them around chopsticks or kind of draped them on a cookie sheet until they dried out. I used cookie cutters on some white rolled out fondant to make the veil and then draped it over two rolling pins to harden. I had to attach everything with royal icing which was a royal pain to make because I did not have any egg white powder so I had to pasteurize my own egg whites which is a tricky task.

I learned, the hard way, that fondant has a tendency to sag when other objects such as marzipan bugs and hard fondant ribbons and veil are attached to it. But overall I was pleased with the result. My favorite parts of the cake were my African-American marzipan fairy and my marzipan toadstools and the ribbons and veil.