Welcome to HowToCookThat, I'm Ann Reardon and today this week we're making a Belle cake
from Beauty and The Beast.
The first thing you'll need to do is make up the chocolate cake recipe and bake that
in 2 round tins and 1 heat-proof glass bowl and we'll use that bit for the top of the
dress.
Once they're baked just level those and then we need to make our frosting.
For that I'm going to use some buttercream and also some ganache, we'll mix that in just
for the bit that goes on the outside not for between the layers.
The reason for that is that it's a little bit softer and I don't want the layers to
slide off each other.
I'm also going to flavour that using some Rose Water and colour it with a little bit
of pink food colouring.
Now Rose Water, for those of you who are in Australia, New Zealand and I think the UK,
tastes a bit like musk sticks and Turkish Delight.
For those of you in the US (and other countries) if you don't like that rose-type flavour then
you can always colour yours yellow and make it lemon flavoured or just leave it plain
vanilla buttercream.
Spread a small amount of frosting onto a round cake board and add your first cake.
Brush that with simple syrup, now this just helps keep the cake moist, I've added some
more rose water into this syrup too to intensify that flavour.
Spread on a layer of your buttercream, making sure it is level then add your next cake on
top.
Spread that with frosting as well, smoothing it out, and then add the bowl cake to one
side on the very top.
Now take your Belle doll and wrap her hair in plastic wrap so that it doesn't get frosting
in it, and then wash and dry the body of the doll as well.
Using a long knife cut straight down into the cake, you want to put it slightly over
to one side and make it a skinny rectangle, don't make it too big because it needs to
firmly hold the doll.
Use a fork to take the cake out of the hole.
And then push ... the doll.. down ... all the way ... into the cake.
Now what we want to do is shape the cake so that it doesn't just sit straight down, we
want it to have a little bit of movement to the dress.
So we are going to make it so she's holding it up on one side and we can see the layers
of the dress underneath.
Start by carving the curve of the bowl off and just angle it up towards the waist so
that it is not quite so rounded and it doesn't look like a bowl.
Then follow that down at the front and down on the right hand side to make it smooth,
down and out towards the base.
Smooth it in the same way at the back, angling it down towards the bottom cake.
But don't cut it on the other side because that is where we are going to make her dress
come up to her hand and then flow back down.
Use your knife to cut out an indent right down the middle of the dress, it doesn't need
to be very deep just a little bit.
And continue adding more of those, making sure they are evenly spaced.
There should be 6 indents altogether.
Mash the cake offcuts to make a paste like you would if you were making cake pops.
Then form some of that into a large ball and add it to the side of the dress shaping it
up towards her hand.
Now mix the white chocolate ganache into your frosting mixing it through well.
I like those colours mixing together there.
And then cover the dress in frosting and you want to refrigerate that for at least 30 minutes.
Roll a rectangle of yellow fondant and wrap it around the cake smoothing it down and into
the folds of the dress.
Trim off the excess at the bottom and use a piece of fondant to smooth down the dress.
Squeeze it in at the waist and use a knife to trim it off and then flatten it down so
that it makes a smooth line in towards her waist rather than having a bumb there.
Now use your fingers pull and shape the fondant up towards her hand so that it looks like
she is holding the dress up.
Now the amount that she is pulling the fabric up by, we need to trim that off the bottom
of the skirt to reveal the underneath.
Use a knife to trim roughly around the base of the cake then come in closer and trim off
the last little bit.
Take some white fondant and add it underneath the yellow so that it covers the frosting
and gives you something to join to.
Then add some strips of white across, layering them up underneath like layers of the dress.
Next make a small indent at the same level on each crease.
Then take a thin rectangle of yellow and fold it back and foward like and acordian.
Pinch it at one end and gently stretch it then add it into one of the indents.
Let it flow down and around.
Pinch it there to make it skinny and add it into the next indent.
So making sure you're leaving a little bit of 'slack' so that it loops down between each
one.
Continue that the whole way around the dress then add a gold sugar pearl into the join
of each one.
For the body part of the dress, cut a piece of fondant with a point down at the waist
and another one going down at the top.
Wrap it around her body to make the top of the dress.
And then at the back you just want to cut it to size using a knife and cut it off at
the top to make it straight.
And then just smooth those joins by gently pressing on them with your thumb or your finger.
Roll a snake of yellow and then use your little finger to roll it and make it skinnier in
the centre.
Rub a little bit of water on the top of her dress and add the snake into place wrapping
it around Belle's shoulders.
Use your knife to make indents around this piece so it looks like it has folds or ruffles.
And then add a sugar pearl right into the middle.
To cover the cakeboard I'm using deep blue to go with the Beauty and The Beast colours
and to bring out the yellow of her dress.
You can of course use whatever colour you like, if you want a different colour go right
ahead.
And Belle is ready to dance.
If you happen to have the Beast as well you can add him to the cake too.
And for those of you who are asking, Yes I am filming this in my new kitchen.
It's still not quite ready though, let me know if you want me to do a kitchen tour when
it is ready.
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Make it a great week by doing something kind for someone else and I'll see you Friday.