I didn't get the best pictures of this cake, and it really didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but it was fun for my daughter who is OBSESSED with Disney's 'Frozen!' I didn't want to do another castle cake like all the other castle cakes out there, so I struggled and struggled for several days before I knew what I was going to do for this cake. That was my biggest problem. Finding a real vision of what I wanted to do. Yet again it was my husband who helped me decide. He said, "Why don't you just carve a castle out of the cake you made?" That got me thinking about the smooth lines of Elsa's Ice Castle, and the possibility of using boiled sugar like in a couple of past cakes.
I tried one version of the ice castle by pouring the sugar over a castle shape I spent HOURS making, and it was an EPIC FAIL!!! I crushed that sugar castle in the garbage after spending way too much time on it! My poor little girl thought her dreams of a ice castle were gone. Then I thought of this site I saw a while ago when researching for the Hunger Games cake. So I spent about 3 hours cutting the hardened sugar to get the shape I was looking for.
Once I had the castle finally planned out, I tried to tackle the idea for the back of the cake. Sheesh, the job is never done!!! So, frosting and a touch of fondant finished out the mountain for Elsa's castle.
Not my most pleasing cake, and I was glad to have it finally done, but it make my little customer happy! We celebrated around my birthday too, so the flavor was my choice! Carrot spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Super yummy and finally done! Perfect. Happy Birthday Livvy Lou. We love you more every day!!!
Hi there - great cake - I just wondered how you did your shards of ice? did you use isomalt and did you cut it before it got hard?
ReplyDeleteThank youxx
Hi Elizabeth. Thanks for your comment. I use this recipe I found on this site: http://forkableblog.com/?p=908 And I also used their way of cutting the hardened sugar with a knife that I heated on my gas stove. It took quite a while, about 3 hours, but it really gave me those sharp edges I was looking for. Thanks for looking!
DeleteI love this! My daughters birthday is this week and I've been melting sugar all week but could never get the shape I wanted. Thank you for completing my piece!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to help!! I'm glad you were able to get it to work out!
DeleteThis is amazing! Is that royal icing on top of the ice shards? Did you have a problem with it dissolving the boiled sugar pieces at all?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Melissa! I actually really hate making royal icing for some reason, so I just used the cream cheese frosting I made for the rest of the cake. I just piped it on the top and brushed it down with a wet paint brush. And no, it didn't dissolve the pieces at all.
DeleteThe best Frozen cake idea I found I finished my version last night at midnight - it was not an easy feat with all the cutting! Thank you very much for the inspiration - she absolutely LOVES it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the sweet comment, Lauren! I'm so happy to help out! I struggled with this cake, so I'm glad it's been such an inspiration for people!! And yes, all that sugar cutting took me forever too!
DeleteThis is great! I am about to make something similar for my daughter's fifth birthday this weekend. I tried my first batch of hard candy, and it turned green when I added the blue food coloring. I've read that heating the candy to 300 degrees causes it to yellow. And tips on how you got that pretty blue? Thanks, Katie
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't have a candy thermometer, so I just boiled it according to the directions here: http://forkableblog.com/?p=908.
DeleteI added a tiny drop of blue Wilton's food gel once I took it off the heat to get the blue nice and light. Thanks for looking!
Just an FYI for other readers... I think my recipe used more water. I cooked my second batch at a lower temperature - 275 degrees. The color came out perfect, but it wasn't as hard and after it sat on the cake for an hour or so, the candy started to warp. It still looked fantastic and my girl loved it!
DeleteHI! thank you so much for this post! like you, I had not seen yet what I really envisioned as Elsa's ice castle until I saw your picture!! thank you thank you!! can I ask, you think I can make the ice candy castle ahead of time (1 week) and it will hold or will it melt? thanks!!
ReplyDeleteNesly, you're so sweet! Thank you! I wouldn't suggest putting the whole cake together that far ahead of time. If you made the cake part and froze it and made the candy pieces and just kept them in an airtight container that would be fine. Then just put it together a day before you serve it it would be fine. I had mine in the fridge over night and the candy was starting to get slightly soft.
DeleteThis is by far one of the best ideas I've seen for the frozen castle. I especially love the way you've made the back of the mountain look. Thank you so much...definitely using most of this as such for my daughter's cake next week.
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Awe, thanks so much!!
DeleteCan I ask how you got the different colours in the one shard. Did you make three different coloured toffees and pour them together on a tray?
ReplyDeleteOnce I had the shards made I took blue food coloring and mixed it with a little clear vanilla extract then 'painted' on the two darker shades of blue. It did make the pieces a little softer though, so maybe use lemon extract instead. :)
DeleteHow many cake layers did you use to make the back?
ReplyDeleteThe cake is just two tiers but for the back I added some more dimension by molding some pieces of fondant around the cake then frosting over it. (No one ate that much fondant; we just tossed it!)
DeleteMy husband is a smart cookie. He watched me struggle cutting this and went to the hardware store. He bought a glass cutter for $5.00. It works great. I make a score line and it breaks on the line.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! I had to make a sugar Tesseract for an Avengers cake and this came in very handy! Tell your husband thank you :)
DeleteGlass cutter! Genius! I will go buy one now. Will also be ready with the dremmel in case... Cant wait to attempt this cake!
ReplyDeleteSoooooooooooooooo beautiful wish i could make that
ReplyDeleteHi, thank you for this post. The cake looks beautiful. I am researching for my daughter´s 4th birthday cake and would love to try this out. I have a question though - how far in advance did you make the candy shapes? I understand they don´t have a long shelf life as sugar absorbs water. Any tips on storage would be much appreciated :)
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