Rapunzel Cake Tutorial

Since this seems to be the year for Rapunzel birthdays I've had some requests as to how I made the Rapunzel cake for Brayden's birthday so I put together these step by step instructions and I hope that it's clear enough. Since I didn't plan on doing this from the time I was making it, I don't have many real life pictures of the process, but I drew some pictures to make it more clear.

I don't profess to be like the "Cake Boss" so this cake topper is not meant to be entirely edible. A lot of it is for "show."

Materials Needed:

hot glue

exacto knife and cutting board

cardboard

empty paper towel roll

white card stock paper

sugar ice cream cone (or make a cone out of card stock)

white, purple, and green fondant (buy premade or make white and add food coloring)

powdered sugar (and if making the fondant, marshmallows)

purple, brown, green, yellow, and pink gum paste (buy white and add food coloring)

Crisco

pizza cutter

rolling pin

leaf and flower "punch out" cutters (obtained from Hobby Lobby in cake decorating section)

9" round cake

small Rapunzel doll

White Lego horse

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It took me four days to make this only because I wanted to space it out and not rip my hair out trying to get it all done in one day. Doing it well ahead of time also gives the fondant and gum paste time to dry and harden.

I made the framework for the tower on day 1. I covered it in fondant on day 2. I did the detail work on day 3, and made and decorated the cake on day 4, the night before the party.

I've included some drawings mostly for the more confusing parts. This isn't a tutorial on how to make and work with fondant so you can learn how to do that on You Tube like I did if you need to. I cut the cardboard using an exacto knife and cutting board. The measurements I give are approximate. I didn't have my original to look at. I was just going off of memory so don't hold me to it. Do what looks best for your tower.

Making the Framework for the Tower

(Day 1)

1. Take an empty paper towel roll. Trace the bottom circle on white card stock paper. Cut out the circle and set aside.

2. Make a small cone out of card stock paper.

3. Cut off the top of the cone to make the opening just large enough for the paper towel roll to fit through and place at the base of the roll. This "base" should be about 3" tall . It should fit snug enough to not have to glue in place, but if needed, taping it in place would probably be easier then glue.

4. Cut a piece of cardboard about 4" high and 14-15" long with the corrugations going vertical.

5. Cut out window in the center

6. Round cardboard to meet ends together and glue in place. This is the rotundum of the tower.

Attaching Rotundum to Paper Towel Roll

7. Cut out about 5 strips of cardboard 4" tall and about 1/2" wide with corrugations going horizontal.

8. Bend away from you about an inch at the top of these strips and bend towards you about an inch at the bottom.

9. One at a time glue the bottom bend of the strip on the inside of the paper towel roll, and the top bend of the strip on the inside of the rotundum.

10. Space them out evenly to fit all the way around to hold the rotundum up securely.

11. Now look inside the rotundum. You want to cover up the spaces you see in between the strips. Cut out white card stock individually big enough to cover up these spaces and glue in place on the inside of the rotundum. (This part, from the outside, is the only part that is not going to be covered in fondant, so keep it looking clean)

12. Take the circle that was cut out from STEP 1 and fit it over the top opening of the paper towel roll and glue in place. (It's not going to fit perfectly snug, but the purpose of this is to prevent the Rapunzel doll from falling down the tube once placed inside.)

Making the Roof and Attaching it to the Rotundum

13. You can use an ice cream cone or make a cone out of card stock that resembles an ice cream cone for the top of the roof.

14. Cut out strips similar to those in STEP 7 but maybe a little thinner and a few more.

15. With these strips you want to round them, not bend them, to create a "swooping effect."

16. Glue the strips on the inside of the cone spacing them out evenly to fit all the way around.

17. Attach the other end of the strips with glue leaving up to 1/4" hanging over the edge.

18. Next I cut small bits of cardboard to make "the edge" of the roof. I glued them on top of the strips connecting them in a circle all the way around. I did this knowing I was going to be placing fondant on top and wanting to give the fondant the best chance of not sagging through these openings and it worked great.

The framework of your tower is now complete!

Covering Your Tower in Fondant

(Day 2)

1. Either buy fondant or make it out of marshmallows and powdered sugar. Since fondant doesn't stick to cardboard get your hot glue gun out.

2. Roll out white fondant about an 1/8" thick. Roll it out on powdered sugar so it doesn't stick to the table. Lay down your tower to measure the length of the paper towel roll.

3. Cut fondant with pizza cutter big enough to fit all the way around the paper towel roll and base of tower.

4. Secure in place with hot glue the same way a water bottle label is secured.

5. Measure the rotundum and cut fondant to fit around in the same way as in STEP 4. Secure in place in the same way.

6. I found where the window was and using my exacto knife, I carefully cut the window out of the fondant.

7. Make purple fondant using food coloring or buy premade purple fondant. Roll it out in the same way as STEP 2. Make it big enough to fit over the roof.

8. Wrap it around the roof, secure it in place with some glue, and cut off (with exacto knife) any excess fondant hanging over the edge. This doesn't need to look perfect. It will be covered with detailing tiles.

9. Cover table, hands (to mix food coloring in I wore latex gloves), and rolling pin in Crisco and roll out purple gum paste 1/8" thick. Cut with pizza cutter into square "tiles."

10. Place the tiles on the roof starting at the bottom and overlapping them a little. Layer them moving upward. Gum paste sticks pretty well to fondant so no need for glue.

Detailing Your Tower

(Day 3)

1. Roll out brown gum paste same way as in STEP 9 above, and using a pizza cutter cut out trimming to go around the top and bottom of rotundum, as well as around the window. If you need extra "stick" use small dots of frosting from a tube.

2. Roughly measure and cut out brown gum paste to cover the cardboard strips. Leave the white card stock uncovered unless you really want to measure and cover with white fondant.

3.Make shutters out of brown gum paste to go on the window. I attached them with glue and had them hinged open away from the wall. I detailed them with my exacto knife to make the lines.

4. Cut out tons of green leaves out of rolled out gum paste with your leaf punch "cut out" and place them along the tower to decorate with "vines."

5. Cut out colored flowers (white, pink, purple, and yellow or whatever colors you want) with flower "cut out" and place them along the vines and at the base to decorate your tower.

6. Place your small Rapunzel doll inside the window with her hair hanging out. I think I had her legs bent at the waist completely behind her in order to get her in there.

Decorating the Cake

(Day 4)

1. Bake cake in a 9" round cake pan. Remove cake from pan and let cool. Make sure you grease the pan well enough beforehand for the cake to remove easily.

2.Place the cake in the freezer for 20 minutes. Take out of the freezer and cut off the rounded top of the cake to make it flat and flip it over onto whatever you plan to present the cake on.

3. While it's still cold frost the cake with buttercream frosting. This is your "crumb layer."

4. Roll out green fondant and cover cake. (Once again, check out You Tube to learn how to do this if you don't know how.) Cut away excess fondant at the base of cake with pizza cutter. Fondant is needed to make the cake strong and sturdy enough to hold this heavy cake topper. If you don't want to use fondant on your cake, just regular frosting, I would suggest using a short tier to hold up your tower apart from the cake. I don't know though. Maybe it would work. I would be afraid of it "smashing" the cake. Be creative and see how you can get it to work.

5. Find the best place on the cake to balance your tower and place it on there with dark green frosting until it's level and balanced. (This was the hardest part for me of this whole process). Decorate the base of the tower with dark green frosting using an icing tip that makes leaves. This will blend the tower into the cake.

6. Decorate the cake with a top and bottom border of dark green frosting and more flower cut outs wherever you want to put them.

7. Find a place for Maximus, your white Lego horse, at the bottom of the tower securing him down with frosting if needed and your cake is complete!