Charles James, the Met Gala, and Vogue...
Vogue called and asked me to play Barbie!
In honor of the Met Gala's tribute to the iconic designer Charles James, Vogue asked me and 5 other amazing cake designers to dress Barbie in some of his most stunning couture gowns. They assigned me his Clover Gown. It was perfect for cake. And such a fun project I couldn't wait to dive in.To start, I did some research on the clover dress and found additional images of front, back and close ups of the bodice that I used to make templates. Barbie is 11.5 inches, so that was the sizing I used to make the templates.
Layout
Carved
In buttercream 1
The Ultra Rich Butter cake was baked and filled with layers passion fruit buttercream and chilled until firm. I covered Barbie in plastic wrap to keep her clean through the cake carving, and inserted her into the middle of the chilled cake. Using the templates and Barbie's shape as guidelines, I carved the cake into the basic shape of the dress. Three layers of buttercream were added, chilling the cake to set in between until I had a smooth surface. Using the original templates I made patterns for the dress. I mixed half fondant and half gum paste to give the fondant enough strength to be lifted and applied to the cake without pulling out of shape. I colored that an ivory to match the photos of the gown. Using the patterns, I cut out 4 pieces to make up the skirt and applied them at the seam points.
Without black
At this time, once the buttercream was covered with the fondant/gum paste mixture, I cut off the protective plastic wrap that covered Barbie from the waste up. I cut out the back and front of the bodice and applied them directly to the body of the doll, joining it at the seams with the skirt. I then painted the entire dress with luster dust to give it the shimmer of the original fabric. Again, using the original templates as patterns, I cut out the black focal detail and applied them on top of the skirt.
Barbie was dressed and could finally put her arms down! Being a model is tough work! Click here to see the finished piece, and here to visit vogue.com for the full story.