The Frozen birthday cake for our “Frozen in Summer” party became quite the impressive work of art. As with many of my party ideas, I didn’t really know what I was going to make and it developed little by little. I wanted to create an “ice castle” and used the Wilton castle cake kit, a styrofoam 10″ cake base and a two-layer, 7″ lemon cake to build the castle.
For decorating, I made batch after batch of hard candy “jewels”. They have a clear/yellow tint as I did not add any food coloring, and I think they look very much like ice.
The hard candy is so simple to make – you simply heat 1 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup water, and 2 Tbs. corn syrup over medium heat until the temperature reaches exactly 300 degrees. At 300 degrees, turn off the heat; you can add food coloring and extract for flavor. Pour the hot liquid into the jewel mold tray, let it cool, then dump it out. Be sure the plastic mold tray is greased with Pam or the candies won’t pop out. I “glued” together the castle pieces and the candies onto the bottom tier using royal icing. The top tier, however, we actually wanted to eat so I frosted and adhered those jewels with Swiss meringue buttercream. For the castle pillars, I used those from the cake castle kit. I sprayed them with white metallic “color mist”, also made by Wilton. Then, I used a gold luster dust and brushed it over the windows and the front of the castle tower for accent. The castle pillars were topped with hard candy molded from some miniature jello molds that I found at the thrift store last year (I knew I would have a use for them at some point!) The cake held up remarkably well after being driven across town and set out in the warm weather for two hours before serving.
The kids were entranced by Elsa’s ice castle cake! And now I can check castle cake off my bucket list.
Ingredients
- Pam/nonstick spray
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 Tbs. corn syrup
- candy thermometer
- molding tray for jewels or desired hard candy shape
Instructions
- Spray molding tray with Pam.
- Stir together sugar, water, and corn syrup in a small saucepan.
- Heat over medium until the temperature reaches exactly 300 degrees on a candy thermometer.
- Immediately remove from heat and stir in food coloring and/or 1/2 tsp. extract for flavor.
- Pour the hot liquid into the jewel mold tray, let it cool, then dump it out.
Nutrition
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kristin says
Are you kidding me??? Stef you are so amazing!! This cake is so detailed and right out of the movie. I saw the cupcakes from the last post. Girl.GoneMad 🙂 Seriously, I know you love what you do but I wish there were a way for you to create a book of all your creations, sewing, parties…you have such impeccable taste and talent! Amazing.
Annie says
It sure is a work of art! Your creativity blows me away. This cake is so magical and beautiful, i LOVE it!
Cindy says
This is amazing! I love every single step and every single thing about this cake! I am pinning this. Thanks so much for sharing. You amaze me girl! Hugs and blessings, Cindy
Charity says
That is awesome! I love how you did the ‘ice’ jewels… I wonder if they would look even more like ice with a tiny bit of blue food coloring? Or if they would just look green… 😉 Amazing job! =)
girlinspired says
Hey Charity, You could definitely add food coloring – I did blue and green “sea glass” the same way for Addie’s Mermaid party a couple years ago – https://thegirlinspired.com/2012/07/mermaid-party-ii/. But since I had to do so many batches of the candy I was afraid that any tinting would be uneven between batches so I went with clear.
Tina says
Incredible job on the cake, dress and cupcakes! I know your little princess was beyond thrilled at all your effort. Thanks for taking the time to share the tutorials!