Charlotte in ONEderland Two-Tier Cake Assembly Guide

The exact decorating and stacking order for the 8-inch blue-and-white checkerboard tier, 6-inch pink-and-purple striped tier, frozen buttercream flowers, and molded wedding-mint decorations.

BEFORE DECORATING 1. Bake, cool, wrap, and chill all cake layers. Make wedding mints ahead and let them become cold and firm. Prepare a sturdy cake board, a 6-inch cardboard round, and cake dowels. 2. Make Sturdy Decorating Buttercream. Keep decoration buttercream stiff; soften only separate portions meant for covering the tiers. 3. Divide and gel-color portions for white, powder blue, blush pink, dark purple, flower colors, green leaves, and attachment frosting. Let colors deepen for several hours or overnight. FILL AND FROST 4. Level and fill each completely cool tier. Pipe a stiff buttercream dam around every filling layer. 5. Apply a thin crumb coat and refrigerate 20–30 minutes until firm. 6. Apply the final coats: pale blue or white on the bottom tier and blush pink on the top. Smooth with a bench scraper and chill until firm. MAKE FLOWERS 7. Pipe flowers with stiff buttercream onto parchment squares attached to a flower nail. Make extras. 8. Freeze 15–20 minutes, just until firm, and keep chilled until placement. ADD PATTERNS 9. Bottom checkerboard: lightly mark horizontal and vertical guides on the chilled tier. Pipe alternating blue/white squares with a small flat or basket-weave tip, smooth gently with a small offset spatula, and chill again. 10. Top stripes: mark stripe positions on the chilled pink tier. Pipe deep-purple vertical stripes with a flat basket-weave tip, smooth gently, and chill. Slightly curved or uneven stripes suit Wonderland, so they do not need to be ruler-perfect. STACK SAFELY 11. Put the bottom tier on its sturdy display board. 12. Insert properly trimmed cake dowels into the bottom tier where the top tier will sit. 13. Keep the top tier on its own 6-inch cardboard round. Center it on the dowels—never place the cake directly onto unsupported frosting and cake. 14. Chill the stacked cake about 20 minutes. FLOWERS AND WEDDING MINTS 15. Build the flower cascade with the largest flowers first, starting near the tier seam and flowing diagonally. Attach with stiff buttercream; fill gaps with smaller flowers, leaves, and dots. Leave open space for the clock and ONEderland details. Chill again. 16. Attach only small, firm wedding mints to the chilled sides with generous dabs of stiff, unthinned buttercream. Hold each several seconds and refrigerate after placing a few. 17. Rest the large clock at the bottom front on the cake board or a tier ledge. Buttercream may hold it against the cake, but the board must carry the weight. Do not hide toothpicks in these decorations. 18. Add the removable Charlotte in ONEderland topper and pipe borders if needed. STORAGE AND SERVING 19. Refrigerate the finished cake. Attach moisture-sensitive wedding mints fairly close to party time so they do not soften or bleed against the frosting. 20. Set the cake out 45–60 minutes before serving so the cake and buttercream soften. 21. Before serving Charlotte, remove all toppers, sticks, molded mints, hard decorations, dowels, and cardboard. Give her only soft cake and buttercream.

Final fondant- and gum-paste-free plan: buttercream patterns and flowers, wedding-mint molded objects, and a cardstock topper.