Ariel Pull Apart Cupcake cake for Trinity's 4th birthday Recipe!

One year has past! Trinity has turned 4! I still remember when she requested for a "Princess Watalala cake" last year. She meant Cinderella. And she got it for her birthday. A fondant handmade Cinderella cake done by me. A first attempt. 

Of course by now, she can pronounce every Princess name accurately and she specially requested for an Ariel cake this year. 

Her school said that it would be better to have cupcakes like I made last year as it is easier to serve the children. So I decided to make an Ariel pull apart cupcake cake! This is my first attempt and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with the final results!

This cake is requested, suggested, baked, partially assembled and partially Frosted by my 4 year old Trinity. She said she wanted to have pink and purple cupcakes with pink and purple frosting and Ariel on top with pink and purple candles. You get the girly drift. 

Yup so we did it! Here's the final results:

Tada! Trinity and all her girl friends at school were thrilled! 

The recipe is modified from Panya's Palette. 

(this

Recipe makes 12 standard cupcakes. I tripled the recipe to make 55 cupcakes.) 

Ingredients:

165g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

120g sugar

1 egg

80g veg oil

160g milk

Pinch of salt

1. Mix the sugar, salt, oil, milk, vanilla and egg together until sugar is dissolved.

2. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and baking soda  and whisk till smooth.

3.use a clean toothpick and pick up the amount of wilton gel food coloring you like. Add to batter and whisk till you get your desired color. 

4. Pour into a 7 inch round cake tin or cupcake cases and bake at 180C for 20-25mins.

5. Cool before decorating it. 

I made poodle balloon sculptures for the entire school, make about 50 of them. 

Trini adds the pink batter on top pf the purple batter. it is easy for children to work with batter using either a squeeze bottle or a piping bag. 

Tada! Fresh from the oven! 

Now to make: 

American Classic buttercream frosting

The original recipe uses lots of sugar ratio of butter to sugar is 1:3! It's too much for us to take so I cut it down by half and put it in the fridge before using so that it is firm without being too sweet. 

Ingredients:

(this recipe can frost 46 mini cupcakes)

2 cups unsalted butter (soften to ice cream like texture)

3 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon sea salt 

2 tablespoon milk 

Stand by 2 cups Additional icing sugar to add 

1. Place soften butter in mixer. Use paddle attachment and beat till creamy.

2. Add icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk and continue beating till you get the desired consistency. Add more sugar if consistency is too soft and add more milk if consistency is too sift. 

This is my darling Tiffany who stayed up to make the frosting with me as she was waiting for me to nurse her. She is such a darling! I prepared the frosting one day in advance and thaw it 2  hours before using. You can leave the frosting in the refrigerator for a maximum of 1 week before use. 

Now to assemble the cake you need to cling wrap Ariel really well so that she doesn't get dirty and to make her tail and top, you need this amazing fruit roll ups which can be found at NTUC FINEST Woodgrove branch. You need about 3-5 pieces. It is easy to work with but the weather in Singapore makes it melt, tear and stick very easily so you do need  someone to hold Ariel for you while you wrap the fruit roll around. 

This is Ariel in Cling wrap and the "fruit roll ups" unrolled and how the packet looks like. 

Now assemble the cupcakes in any way you like and cut off the tops to make it even for frosting if needed 

This is the skeleton of the cake before slicing off the tops and before frosting.

To frost:

Use the buttercream and spread over the cupcake using an off set spatula and   Feel free to create the waves by moving your off set spatula in a circular motion. 

Pipe the borders in another color to give a better definition. 

I chilled the cake over night and worked with the rest of the details on the actual morning. It makes the buttercream firm up and easier to transport to the school. 

 For party favors, I made poodle balloon sculptures, About 50 of them and Trinity patiently drew eyes for every poodle! (almost! She gave up after doing about 40 pairs of poodles eyes at 10pm) 

hard at work! 

So we reached school and everyone was happy to have their Ariel cake and also the poodle balloon sculptures that Trinity gave out!

This is a great surprise for the children who are used to getting goodie bags. They got really excited and the teachers wrote their names on it to prevent conflicts.

After her teacher shared the timeline of her life for the past 4 years, she was invited to do the birthday walk to mark her turning of 4 years old. There were 2 other boys who had the same birthday month as her and they celebrated on the same day with their own cakes and goodie bags so you can imagine the joy on every child's face! 3 cakes to eat and 3 party favors to receive! 

As usual, the serious looking face when she is in the limelight...

Giving out balloons to everyone. 

Happy children makes all the effort worthwhile!

Trinity and Tiffany eats the birthday Cakes! 

Outdoor time!

Look at the strong Rambutan tree in Trinity's school! 

Tiffany looking for fallen rambutans.

 Tada! Mummy look! I found one! But it is time to go home! 

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Praise Jesus for your strength to carry me through this 2 days of party preparation! Trinity and Tiffany enjoyed themselves tremendously!

Hope you will try this recipe for your child soon! If you have a son, I would suggest you to top with a car with an action figurine or transport with blue and green frosting! 

Inspiring Yummy Mummies

PoshPearl