Dora the Explorer cake.. How to

I decorated this cake for my nieces 2nd birthday.  She loves her Dora!  This was a pretty easy cake to make and took just a few hours.  The hardest part was getting the pink buttercream icing as smooth as possible.

Things you'll need:
- 2     8x3 round cake pans
-non-stick spray to coat the pans  (my personal favorite is Wilton Cake Release)
-Your favorite homemade or box cake mix

Coat cake pans with light non-stick spray,  mix cake recipe according to directions and cook according to directions.

-bubble gum balls, can be purchased at local party store
-Fondant   (I bought Wilton brand white and colored with cake coloring)
-Flower and round fondant cutters
-6 cups buttercream icing
-Wilton icing color Rose, Purple, Yellow and Green.
-Wilton grass tip #233, along with icing bags and couplers
-Wilton small round tip (to make lime colored dots)
-Fondant roller
-Dora doll or cut out   (I searched high and low for the perfect doll and eventually bought a bday card cut out Doras pic and taped it to hard poster board with double-sided tape)
-2  toothpicks  (Tape to dora cut out.  Once, connected to hard poster board.)
-Letters and stars can usually be purchased at local market with bakery

While cake was cooking I made buttercream icing and added almost a whole tube of Wilton icing color Rose.  Set aside a small amount of icing to make bright green and yellow color (1/4-1/2 cup).  Just a small amount of green and yellow coloring mixed into buttercream makes lime colored dots.  Decide what color you would like flowers and bigger/small dots.  Knead coloring into fondant.  Roll out and use cut outs, be creative.

After cooling cakes and leveling cakes.  Ice with pink buttercream icing.  Ice as smoothly as possible.  Next, add round cut outs and flowers. Keeping in mind how high your gum balls climb up the cake.  Use a small amount of buttercream to add center of flowers fondant cut out.  Add lime green buttercream dots in random spots.  Now figure out where name display will be.  Next, add grass with grass tip.  Make sure to pull straight up and in different directions to make grass appear more real.  I then, added gum balls(with firmness) changing every other color and not allowing 2 colors to touch.  Lastly, I waited to add Dora picture till I arrived at party place, so cake would fit in carrier.

I approach every cake with creativeness.  Be creative!

Questions just ask.

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