Princess Dora Cake for Princess Eunice

On March 1, 2009, Eunice was diagnosed with a rare disease (not a contagious one) called dermatomyositis and  was confined at the IWK hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia for more than 6 months.

"Dermatomyositis is a muscle disease characterized by inflammation and a skin rash. It is a type of inflammatory myopathy. Causes, incidence, and risk factors The cause of dermatomyositis is unknown. Experts think it may be due to a viral infection of the muscles or a problem with the body's immune system. Anyone can develop dermatomyositis, but it most commonly occurs in children age 5 - 15 and adults age 40 - 60. Women develop this condition more often than men do. Polymyositis is a similar condition, but the symptoms occur without a skin rash.
The muscle weakness may appear suddenly or develop slowly over weeks or months. You may have difficulty raising your arms over your head, rising from a sitting position, and climbing stairs."

You can just imagine what Edlyn and Ronnie (Eunice's parents) went through. There were no words eloquent or descriptive enough to fully explain their fear and how they felt during those times of uncertainty.
But God has done a miracle here – truly.
Eunice recovered and doing wonderfuly.

Today, the family still go to IWK for a monthly checkup and Eunice is growing to be a healthy, smart and beautiful girl. In fact on February 1st, she turned four (4) - we have the same birthday and I turned 4_!

Her birthday party was yesterday (Feb 5th) and we were invited.
 She loves Dora The Explorer and so I decided to make her a Princess Dora cake with cupcake tower. 


The Princess Dora cake was similar idea I did for my daughter's Barbie Cake (the top tier) which Eunice pointed out indirectly...her first words when she saw the cake - "I don't want Barbie"...so funny! But Mom assured her that it is a Dora doll - she smiled.

I made the cupcake toppers using fondant - stars, dora face, map, backpack and boots' boots. I also made the cupcake stand using a foamcore board, dummy cakeboard and ribbons. The stand makes a grand presentation for the creation.

I made 4 dozen chocolate and vanila cupcakes and Swiss Italian Meringue Buttercream colored in Lavander shades.  I also bought some cupcake wrappers for decoration, to make the cupcakes look cleaner. You know how the cupcake liners look greasy after they come out of the oven, the wrapper hides that look.

The Princess Dora cake is a chocolate cake, filled and crumbcoated with italian meringue butter and chocolate ganache; decorated in fondant. I like using Satin Ice Fondant than Wilton Fondant. I find it taste better and does not tear easily. However, the White-Vanilla flavor is so hard to color compared to that of Wilton. I almost used a quarter of the Wilton Food Gel Color but it still coming very pale. 
I am planning of trying the Virgin White Fondx Fondant next time.

Picture of the Laxamana family with the cake.

Happy 4th Birtday Eunice!