Princess Castle

I have never done a girl cake until now! I decided I wanted to do this cake just for fun and was telling a friend about it. When I told her she asked if I would wait and do it for her daughter's birthday that is coming up. I decided to go ahead and try one right now for two reasons. First I was so excited to finally do something girly I couldn't wait and second I wanted to practice once before doing the one for my friend since I have zero experience with girly things. It turned out to be pretty easy and so much fun! I can't wait to do this again and with more detail! Here is what I used:

Cake
Frosting
Waffle cones
Jumbo cones
Regular cones
Sprinkles

Building

BUILDING:
I always build everything before I begin frosting and decorating to make sure everything will fit and stay in place the way I vision it in my head. I used two square cakes stacked for the bottom layer. Then a round dish and a bowl stacked for the top. Against all four corners of the square cake on the cake board I used a jumbo cone with a waffle cone in it. Then on top of the back two corners of the square I used regular cones with waffle cones and lastly I used just a waffle cone for the very top. Once I knew everything would fit and look okay I took the cones off until the very end.

Frosting

FROSTING:
I first used a brown frosting to outline my door and windows using a #7 tip. The door was filled in with the #12 tip. Then I used the #18 star tip for the remainder of the cake (everything purple). This frosting that I used was a new recipe to give it kind of a shimmer look but wasn't very stiff so it made decorating difficult. A royal icing would have looked much neater.

Details

DETAILS:
I used a basting brush to apply Karo Syrup to the waffle cones then sprinkled pink sparkly sprinkles all over them. Then I used some pink frosting to stick them to the cup cones and frosting on the cup cones to stick to the cake and cake board. I frosted the cup cones in the pink frosting and used a zig zag scraper I have to give it a swirled looking texture.

Finishing

FINISHING TOUCHES:
Lastly I used the #233 tip to put grass along the front of the castle and around the front cones. I used the #2 tip to do some vines on both sides of the castle. Then I used the left over pink frosting for a couple drop flowers (tip #107) on the vines and along the grass. I also filled in the windows (#5) and put a door handle on the door. This was my first time trying flowers or vines or anything like that so I was cautious and didn't do many. Next time I do it I think I'll do some more vines and flowers and I will put a stone path to the door.
TADA! Here is the finished product!

Finished Castle Cake!