have your cake, and eat it, too

I made a cake for my niece's birthday this weekend. She wanted something that had to do with ballerinas or horses, because she wanted a horse and she thought that she would wake up on her birthday and be a ballerina. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any examples of either of those things that I liked, so I ended up making one of the cakes that looks like a doll dress. It was my first attempt, and I made a lot of mistakes, but I think it turned out okay. Tip: the frosting that is sold in the cans in the grocery store does NOT make a good crumb base. Even though it seems convenient and it's midnight and you just need to get something on the cake so that it doesn't dry out overnight, take the time to make some real icing, or else while you drive the cake up to the birthday party the store-bought frosting will melt down and take all the nicely decorated icing with it. Your doll will end up without a skirt, and you will end up crying in the passenger seat, and your fiance will spend the drive patting your hand and wonding why you are emotionally unstable.

But before the skirt fell off, she looked nice, huh?

And this was the cake that I made for another niece. This one turned out much more stable, I think.