Rachel's Birthday

Rachel wanted a Castle cake for her eleventh birthday, a pink castle. She took out a cake decorating book from the library that had the most elaborate castle birthday cake I have ever seen. Pointed turrets, wooden looking drawbridge, stonework frosting, stained glass windows, a moat with lily pads floating in it... You get the idea.

I made a scaled-down version (an extremely scaled-down version). The windows and flags are flavored tootsie rolls. The round window is a life saver, and the drawbridge is made of Kit-kats. It's pink frosted, but no stonework. I was rushing it so I skipped the crumb-coat. The flecks of chocolate cake in the pink frosting give it an authentic look, I think... The coconut flakes represent snow (also covers up the mistakes...).

Rachel loved it, which was the whole point, and excitedly showed all of her guests.
Abby curled Rachel's hair for the event.
My mom had made Rachel a ton of doll clothes for her doll for her birthday. So Rachel and her friends spent a long while undressing and re-dressing their dolls, mixing and matching the outfits. Then they all went outside and built monstrous snow forts in the snowbanks and took turns going for rides on the horse. After everyone was sufficiently cold and wet, they came in for hot cocoa and Wii boxing. Nothing like virtually beating up your friends to cap off a birthday party!