Friday, September 30, 2011

Raggedy Ann Cake Instructions

I've had quite a few requests to post the instructions to the Raggedy Ann Doll Cake so here they are:

I didn't remember to take pictures of every step so I asked cakecentral's momade if I could use her pictures and she was very kind to allow it.  I have credited her whenever I used a photo of hers, if you click on the link it will take you to her cakecentral cake photos. Thank you momade for your kindness!
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Raggedy Ann's limbs and head were made from RKT, 4 day's in advance so they'd have enough time to harden. When molding them together, I tried making the mold as tight together as possible not to leave any holes or pockets inside.  I also made the bow at this time to allow it to dry on time.


 



For Raggedy Ann's body, I used the Wilton Wonder Mold Kit which you can purchase by clicking on the link.


 This cake was filled with three layers of filling. Torted once, filled then frosted crusted and smoothed. 


          Photo courtesy of:  http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-photos-by-momade.html
(the picture is a different pan, I used the one I mentioned above.)
 DRESS: I first measured approx how much fondant I was going to need to cover her body with her dress using MMF. Then cut it out (it was a large circle shape) then made impressions all over the 'dress' with a small flower stamp and draped it over her body. I then brushed a little red petal dust into each of the flower impressions.
 
   LIMBS: I started on the legs first. I lightly frosted them and while I was rolling out the fondant it gave them enough time to crust. I only frosted the pieces I knew I was going to be covering with fondant right away because I didn't want the RKT to soften to much before I got the fondant on. To make the socks, I rolled out some red and white fondant and cut a bunch of narrow strips from each color. I then placed one red stripe next to a white stripe and continued the pattern to make stripes. Once I got the length I wanted, I lightly rolled over the entire pattern going in the direction of the stripes to help them stick and look like one pattern. Then I cut them to the size sock I was looking for and wrapped one sock around each leg. 
 For the boot, I just cut out a square piece of fondant and formed it round the toe and overlapping the sock. This formed a cute little shoe/boot. 
 I covered her head and hands lightly in frosting then in fondant. Only going half way-- just enough to cover her hands and lower arms. The dress sleeves will cover the top part.
 
Photo courtesy of:    


I added her frilly pants by rolling out some white fondant and cutting a strip to cover the top of her leg and overlapping her sock a little. I made the leg ruffle the same way I made the neck ruffle. Next, I laid these ruffles on the bottom of her pants and puffed them up to appear frilly. Then I placed her legs underneath her dress.

ARMS:
First I added a sleeve to each of her arms with a little ruffle on the bottom. To add the arms to her body I placed a small dowel stinking out of the top inside part of her arm and placed it into the cake. (Her hands should rest on the board) Then I tied a small piece of ribbon around her wrists for a finished  look.
HEAD:
  To place her head on, I first put a small blob of frosting where her head and neck would join.At this point I put a wooden dowel down her body, letting it stick out about 4". Very gently, I made a hole in the bottom of her head with another dowel the same width so that I could just place her head on top of the dowel in her body and gently push down with no difficulty
I then cut a 3" strip of blue fondant, stamped the flower pattern on, folded it in half the long way, made the ruffles and placed it around her neck. 


FACE: 
For her eyes: I cut the white circles using a small circle cookie cutter, making sure to roll the fondant VERY thin. For the black circles I used the large end of a frosting tip-- the opened end - not the tip side. The white dots on her eyes I cut out with a size #4 tip.
For the nose: I just cut out a triangle of red fondant. 
For the lips and mouth: I just made an oval shape out of red fondant and hand painted the rest of her mouth with thinned black food coloring. I also painted on her eyebrows and lashes. 
 None of these were placed on her face right away. I let each of them dry a little first so I could then place them on her face with the freedom of being able to move them around without sticking. This movement allowed me to I get the exact face expression I was looking for. To 'glue' the pieces on, I brushed a little water underneath each piece to stick them in place. I then lightly brushed some pink petal dust on her cheeks to give her a blush.

(isn't she adorable!)

HAIR: 
For her hair, I put some red fondant through the clay gun with the clover disc and cut into about 4" long pieces. Then I twisted each piece to make it look more like yarn and stuck the to her head with some lemon extract and toothpicks to hold each piece in place.



Don't forget the little bow in front!



APRON: 

The  1" straps were added after the arms to cover any seems
 For the apron, I again measured out approx how much fondant I needed, then tucked each piece under her arms. I used three rectangular pieces of fondant--one large one for the front, ruffling the top, and two pieces for the back, tucking the ends under her arms and having an opening in the back (folding in the edges for a  nice neat look).
 I added a 1" wide piece of white fondant as a band going across the top of the apron and piped the Raggedy Ann theme around the whole thing.



THE BOW:
The bow was nice and hard from drying for four days and stuck on beautifully with a bit of royal icing.

THE BOARD:
I covered the board in blue fondant covering the edges with ribbon and piped some more stitching around the perimeter, added a few hearts in front and a banner with the little girls name.


The final product!

Have fun trying!
Don't hesitate to leave me a comment if you need any further help.
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