How to make a Dolly Vardon

Recipe and Images by Yasmin

These are the two cakes I made for Cultural Festival, one of which one 3rd Place! This type of cake is called a Dolly Vardon. The skirt or base of the cake is actual cake, while the top is the torso of a Barbie doll or a Kelly (Barbie) doll. For these two cakes I used Kelly dolls for the ease of fitting it in the cake. If you use a Barbie doll you must remove the legs and just leave the torso to fit into the cake. Below are some simple instructions on how to make your own dolly vardon cake. Have fun!

How to make Ariel:

Step 1: Bake a cake in a deep bowl. It will take longer to cook because the cake is more dense and the bowl is acrillic not tin. It is always a good idea to slightly overcook the cake (until it is 'dry' in taste) to make it sturdier for the ease of cutting and icing.

Step 2: Cover some carboard, a bread board, a cake board etc. with aluminium foil and seel on the underside with sticky tape. This becomes the 'stand' or 'presentation board' for Ariel.

Step 3: When completely cool cut a small hole slightly off centre (to allow for the piping of the tail).

Step 4: Place the Kelly Doll into the hole and then ice the cake (which will become a rock for Ariel to sit on) with chocolate butter icing.

Step 5: Smooth the icing over so the rock is completely covered.

Step 6: Colour some of the butter icing green and place it into a zip lock bag with the end snipped (the hole must be very small) or in a piping bag with a small nozzle. Start to pipe the tail; small piping for the tail and larger piping when it connects with the torso of the Kelly Doll. When you reach the part of the tail which the fins start, outline the fins and then proceed to fill them with long strokes of piped icing rather than small blobs.

By now the butter icing will have softened greatly so put the left over icing and cake into the fridge for 5 minutes to set before moving on with the other steps. Because this cake takes a few hours to complete to perfection, the cake and icing will need to be placed in the fridge a few times to set.

Step 7: Begin to decorate the board and rock with different coloured icing. I made some smaller rocks amongst the big rock Ariel is sitting on. On these I made Sebastian the Crab and also different types of seeweed. Also decorate Ariel's rock with seeweed and maybe some shells, as well as piping a purple bra on Ariel. Then place it in the fridge again.

Step 8: Make some blue butter icing and place it in a zip lock bag with a fairly small hole in one corner, or a piping bag with a small nozzle. This will become the sea surrounding the rocks which are breaching the water.

Begin by piping dots around the rocks and then place icing randomly on the board. Using a fork, spread the icing (without damaging the piping) around the board until it is mostly covered by blue.

Be creative and don't make the fork imprints occur in straight line, make them randomly curve like waves.

Step 9: Place the finished product back in the fridge to set.

Now that you know the fine details of making a Dolly Vardon you can use the ideas in these steps to make another Dolly Vardon of another character such as Snow White.

 When transporting the cakes it is easiest to put them in a box if you have a few and put that box in the boot of the car, or if there is another person in the car, let them hold it on their lap.