Barbie Cake with Flower Cupcakes

This was a Barbie cake for a Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses party. (Yeah, I could have done all 12 dancing princesses, but then I'd have had to jump off a bridge, and my family would have missed me.)

I learned a lot on this one...such as, they make little Barbie "torso"s that you can stick on the cake instead of using the whole Barbie...but that they look NOTHING like real Barbie.

They make a cake pan (or bowl, as the case may be) JUST FOR baking a cake the shape of Barbie's skirt. PERFECT! Except, the skirt is made for Midget Barbie (probably why some genius thought up the separate torso thing). So, it is necessary to use additional cake at the bottom of Barbie's skirt so that she will actually stand in it.

And most importantly, after days (literally) of baking and decorating, your 5 year old thinks nothing of saying, "Hmmm...it's OK. It doesn't really look much like her though."