I’ve always been fascinated by babushka dolls. My mother has one that we used to play with as children, which is pretty much still in tact except for the second smallest one which is missing her top half.
Needless to say, I’ve been enjoying the recent revival of the nesting doll, there are so many beautiful crafts featuring them of late. Following the birth of my second daughter I’ve taken the opportunity to indulge my babushka fetish and her christening was the perfect opportunity to cake-ify them!

I decided to do three cakes…my daughter’s name is Tia, so it was perfect. Also, you never see one on her own do you? Well, all good in theory isn’t it! Loved carving and ganaching them…covering them in fondant was a different story. A tall cylindrical shape is never easy. Ideally, I would’ve loved to have got them covered from the top down, in one beautiful, clean piece and then hand painted them – true to their heritage style. The tallest doll stood at 36cm, so that was an impossible task. Well, it was for me anyway!!!

So each one was wrapped and then decorated with fondant cut outs and I then hand painted details on the faces and piped a small pearl border around their head scarves and as an outline of their clothing. I’d been wanting to make a babushka doll for quite some time and was so pleased with the result! The cakes were carved from choc orange mud cake, with a dark chocolate ganache between the layers. Yum!