Castle Birthday Cake

I baked this cake for my son's 9th birthday. I had planned to put Harry Potter figurines on top because he wanted that theme but I could not find them.

I used the following materials:
2 boxes of chocolate cake mixes
2 and 1/2 boxes of white icing
black Wilton gel icing (found in the cake decorating aisle of walmart)
green Wilton gel icing
blue tube icing
green fondue
ice cream cones regular size and minis
marshmellows regular size and mini
green apple twizzlers
chocolate covered orange sticks
mini hershey bars
1-cake board
tooth picks

First bake one of the cake mixes as the box instructs. I used an air bake pan to help hold in moistness. Once the cake is baked remove it from the oven and allow it to cool completely before putting it on a cake board. If you try to get it out before it is completely cooled you may tear up the cake and have to piece it back together or worse toss the whole thing! Once the cake is out of the pan mix up and begin baking another cake. Follow the same steps as you did with the first.

While the second cake is baking begin rolling out the fondue and cut out triangle shapes for your trees. Cut two for each tree. Add a toothpick between each triangle to attach it to the cake. These can be laid aside while you icing the bottom layer. I made a yard and then began the castle on the first layer. The green yard was made from using about 1/4 of a can of white icing and mixing in the green Wilton gel. Add the gel slowly to get the shade you want.  I got the grey color from mixing the white icing and the black gel food coloring. Add the black slowly or else you will end up with a black castle. I used a tooth pick to add the color and folded it in completely before adding any more. You might also consider doing a castle surrounded by water and use blue instead of the green. If you choose to do a pond make a small area of the cake blue. Once the bottom cake is completely covered with icing like you want it you can begin working with the second cake or working to make the towers you are going to need. I did both cakes before I made the towers because they are very touchy once you begin icing them. The second cake will need to be cut to make the 2nd layer of the castle. I eneded up only making 2 layers but there is enough left over to make a small top if you would like another layer. I was not sure it would look right because then the layers would be taller than the towers.

The towers are ice cream cones. The main tower is one full size ice cream cone with a marshmellow and mini cone inside it. You will need to heat the cone just a bit to get the small cone to stay in place and also so that you can straighten it before you begin coloring it with icing. I used the same color icing as I had used for the castle so that it all matched. You will need to put tooth picks gently into the bottom and sides of the cones so that you can attach them to the cake. Once in place I used icing to cement them to the cake and filled in the cracks between cake and cone. I made 2 of these one for each side but you could make more depending on how you want your castle to look. The top tower in the center of the cake is just the top ring of an ice cream cone, a mini cone, and a small flag made from the green fondue. You will feel like a mason before it is complete and wonder if you should have invested in one of the concrete spreaders at the hardware store.

The stones around the second and top layer of the castle are mini marshmellows rolled in cake icing. The doors and windows are sculpted mini Hershey bars. The bridge is made from chocolate covered orange sticks. The green apple twizzlers are tall overgrown grass by the pond and ivy crawling up the side of the castle. It was first intended to be used to make a willow tree with a mini cone and marshmellow but it was too heavy and it eventually fell apart.

 Be prepared to splurge on supplies and have at least 5-6 hours on hand to complete this project. I began work on it about 10:30 AM and it was complete around 4PM, and this was because my husband had baked the first cake while I was still fast asleep!