How to Make A Princess Ice Cream Cake

In This Post: Learn how to make a princess ice cream cake. An easy tutorial!

Guest Post

Hi all, I am our lovely Audrey Gail’s niece, Sammy. I have a daughter who is 11 (I will call her Angel), a foster daughter who just turned 4 (I will call her Princess) and a foster daughter who is 17 (The Professor.) They love spending time with Auntie Gail and Uncle Steve, going on adventures and baking cookies. The last time we visited at Thanksgiving, we all went on a trip to visit Gettysburg. What a fabulous museum they have there. You really must check it out if you’re ever in the area!

Gail asked if I would like to contribute some of my talents to her blog. So the next opportunity I got to be a little extra crafty, I promised myself to remember to take some pictures for you all. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Read my full disclosure policy here for more details. As an Amazon Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The opportunity came a little while ago when Princess turned 4 and wanted a princess dress up party in the backyard, complete with a Barbie Princess ice cream cake. After searching the internet and not finding a lot of advice on making one, I thought that my trial and error could be my contribution to the blog.

To get started, you will need to get a few supplies. Most can be picked up at your local big box store.

What You Will Need

A dress form pan. I have a metal Wilton dress form pan.
A tart pan or plate with the same diameter as the cake pan.
Enough ice cream to fill the pan. I used 3 pints to fill mine.
The top half of a fashion doll. I used a mermaid doll from the Dollar Tree. One that easily comes apart and has a hole in it is best.
Skewers or a large straw.
Graham crackers and butter to make the crust.
Butter cream icing to decorate the cake.

First fill up the dress form pan with ice cream.

Let the ice cream sit out and get just a little soft, to make the transfer easier. Mush the ice cream really well so it fills up the pan without leaving any air pockets.

Then cover the pan and put it in the freezer overnight or until frozen solid.

Next, mix up a Graham cracker crust and press it into the tart pan.

Bake the crust until it is firm and let it cool. Press the cooled crust into the top of the ice cream. (My tart pan came apart so I used that as the base of my cake when I flipped it out of the dress pan.) Then return the dress pan to the freezer to harden again.

Once it is frozen solid again, remove the cake from the pan.

To do this, turn the pan upside down on your serving plate. Wrap a dish towel, warmed with hot water, around the pan. When the pan warmed up, the cake will easily slip right out. This was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be!

Then back in the freezer to harden again.

Next install the doll top.

The mermaid dolls from the Dollar Tree are hollow and easily come apart in the middle so it is the perfect use for the cake because you only need the top half of the doll. You’lI need to cut several skewers and then slip the hollow doll on to them. So, you see, the skewers stabilize the doll.

Pull apart the doll and measure how tall you need the skewers to be to go all the way through the cake and support the doll top. Cut the rest of the skewers to match and stick them in the middle of the cake. Then back in the freezer to harden it. (This is not a fast project and between molding and decorating it took me 3 days because it was August and the cake could only be out for about 15 minutes before it started to melt.)

You could also use a cake form doll from Wilton that comes on a skewer already. I would not recommend using a real full size Barbie however, as it would be too messy trying to cut out the center of the cake for the legs.

Finally, decorate the cake!

I found that I had to apply thin layers and freeze the cake after each layer or the icing would not stick to the melting ice cream. I applied two icing layers to the ice cream before adding the piping. To smooth out the base coat. I heated up my spatula in hot water and smoothed it over the frozen icing. I couldn’t get the icing to stay on an area of the back of the cake that had gotten too warm, so when I moved on to piping the details, I just went crazy with the ruffles over that spot and it turned out looking better than I planned.

Princess loves Cinderella, so I used two shades of blue and some white icing to make a frilly ball gown inspired by her favorite character. I piped on the details using #9 and #123 Wilton tips. I just looked at a picture off the internet and tried to mimic the lines of Cinderella’s dress, while also adding some strategic ruffles to cover up any flaws in the base coat.

At the Party

I waited until the food was almost gone and then brought out the cake to the oohs and aahs of many little girls and their moms. My dear Princess had a great big smile and a hug for me in thanks for, as she put it, “the bestest Princess cake forever!”

I hope you enjoy this little lesson and please let Audrey Gail know if you would like me to continue to contribute more.

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So are you ready to do this?

If you make a princess cake, I’d love to see what you make — send me a photo at [email protected] or post it on

https://www.facebook.com/missaudreygail

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