From perfect princesses to extraordinary volcanos, a Dolly Varden cake is the answer to spectacular birthdays inspired by their favourite things.

A Dolly Varden cake is distinctively cone-shaped and incredibly versatile. With a little imagination and plenty of icing, home cooks can transform the basic cake into anything from heroines in flowing gowns to the busiest beehives! Basically, if you can dream it, you can do it with a Dolly Varden tin. And as mums ourselves, we’d go so far as to say that a Dolly Varden cake tin is a must-have for the preschool years.

We’ve carefully curated a spectacular list of birthday cakes for you to pore over and take some inspiration from. But first, let’s take a closer look at what makes the Dolly Varden cake just so special.

What is the history of the Dolly Varden cake?

The cake was inspired by the fictional character ‘Dolly Varden’ in Charlies Dickens’ 1841 novel, Barnaby Rudge. Dolly’s beautiful gowns with tight bodices and billowing skirts were actually the inspiration behind women’s 19th-century British fashion. (Dolly also inspired the naming of a certain trout – but we’re not cooking fish today!)

How to cook a Dolly Varden cake evenly

The answer to an evenly cooked Dolly Varden cake is to use a quality aluminium tin and ensure your oven is not too hot. If you know your oven tends to cook unevenly, try placing the tin in a water bath while it bakes to stabilise the temperature.

But even if the top isn’t perfectly flat once it comes out of the oven, don’t worry. The top actually forms the base of the cake and you’ll likely need to level it to sit perfectly flat on your cake board anyway.

How to decorate a Dolly Varden cake

The imagination is the limit when it comes to decorating Dolly Varden cakes. Take inspiration from the famous Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book and try your hand at a marshmallow dress. Or, use rolled fondant icing to create a billowing gown fit for a princess.

Take a look below for more incredible ways to decorate these classic kids’ birthday cakes. And when you’re done here, take a peek at some of our other birthday cakes for kids, including some of the most colourful Wiggles cakes you ever did see!

Feature Packed!

This showstopper takes party tables to all new levels! Designed by Annie’s Cupcakes in Canberra, it involves a buttercream-topped dolly varden cake smothered with macarons, iced biscuits and waffle cones. A huge amount of work has gone into the decorations of this one, but if you want to try something similar, you could always look for ready-made candies and lollies in whatever colour scheme you like.

Source: Annie’s Cupcakes Canberra

Beautiful Bollywood

There are cakes, and then there are Cake Lady Cakes! The handpainted detail that has gone into this stunning Bollywood dress is really something else. Right down to the lace shawl and jewellery, it’s picture-perfect. If you’d rather leave something this intricate to the professionals and happen to be based in Sydney, do yourself a favour and get in touch with the ever-talented Liz.

Source: Cake Lady Cakes

Lovely Layers

Bright, textural and positively unmissable, this summery Dolly Varden cake is one centrepiece that won’t be missed. What we love most about this one is that the imagination is the limit with the types of dress layers you could include. Choose any colours or styles to suit the party palette! Just love those yellow flowers.

Source: Hansel and Gretel Cakes

Belle Of The Ball

From a multi-award-winning cake maker and artist comes a cake that Beauty and The Beast fans will never forget. Of course, the masterful Verusca Walker has added details that involve a great deal of skill, but the design goes to show what’s possible with plenty of yellow fondant and a Belle doll.

Source: Verusca Walker

Jaws-some

If you’ve got shark-obsessed little ones in your midst, this incredible cake kit from Bake Believe is the key to fabulous and easy Jaws cake. The set includes (almost) everything you need to pull this creation together, you can even choose to add the Dolly Varden tin to your order if you don’t have one. You’ll get edible images, cake mix, icing sugar and food colouring along with detailed instructions to make it yourself – all for a fraction of the price of a professionally designed cake.

Source: Bake Believe

Magnificent Moana

Are your little ones obsessed with Moana? This Dolly Varden cake idea is so easy that the kids will be able to help make it. Apply a ‘crumb coat’ of icing followed by a second coat of buttercream. Then, use a roller cutter to slice lots of strips of bright green fondant icing and lay them on top of the buttercream. The beauty of this technique is that the strips cover up any mistakes underneath. Love that.

Source: Cake Biz Narellan 

Sleeping Beauty

Layer upon layer of the prettiest pink fondant icing brings Aurora’s dress to life in this stunning cake. In fact, this style of dress is a fantastic idea for re-creating any of their favourite heroines – just pick the signature princess colour and start rolling that icing! Of course, you could always get in touch with Kristie at With Love And Sugar if you’d rather outsource the creativity.

Source: With Love And Sugar

Halloween Sorted

It might terrify some kids, but a lot of grown-ups will appreciate this dark twist on the classic Dolly Varden cake, especially if they’re fans of Steven King! Based on the famous novel, Carrie, this work of art by Not Quote Nigella is as morbid as it is magnificent. To do something similar, just equip yourself with plenty of white fondant and red gel colouring.

Source: Not Quite Nigella

Special Care

From an amazing custom cake store in South Hobart comes a cake design just as perfect for people in the health profession as it is for caring kids. With a simple white and blue fondant base over the cake, the beauty really is in the accessories with this one, so if you try something similar, take the time to get them just right.

Source: Tiny Bit Marvellous

Petite Princess

All dressed up and ready for the ball, these adorable Dolly Varden princess creations by Burnt Butter Cakes make beautiful use of buttercream icing. With no fondant in sight, all you need to make something similar is a pasty bag and the right piping tips for the rosettes. Just don’t forget the sprinkles!

Source: Burnt Butter Cakes

The Cake Is Lava!

If princesses are out and lava is in, a volcano cake is the only way to go! A Dolly Varden cake tin is the ideal shape for anything mountainous like a volcano or large rock – and it’s completely up to you how you choose to decorate it. This amazing creation by Iced By Kez uses a lot of coloured fondant icing, but you could easily substitute the dark brown fondant for buttercream and use toy figures around the base.

Source: Iced by Kez

Sweetest Spells

Our hats go off to Tessa of Mumma Made It for this recreation of the original Witch cake from the Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book. Perfect for Halloween parties, this idea is easily adaptable to suit the party’s colour theme or your child’s favourite witchy character. Just don’t forget gloves when working with black gel colouring!

Source: Mumma Made It

 Ready For The Ball

In true ombre perfection, this cake uses multiple shades of pink to create a textured dress. This is one of our favourite decorating ideas because it’s just so adaptable – switch up the dolls and colours to bring another character to life! Add some sprinkles or jewels for even more wow!

Source: Eleni’s Kouzina

Let Down Your Hair

Birthday cakes don’t get better than this for Rapunzel fans! Decorated by The Green Bakery, this cake uses buttercream, fondant and edible jewels to transform a basic Dolly Varden cake into one of Disney’s most-loved heroines. The only thing missing is Pascal!

Source: The Green Bakery

Bee-eautiful!

Who said Dolly Varden cakes were only for princesses? Created by Mrs Lardeedah, this adorable first-birthday cake is a beehive, complete with a black door and lots of busy bees! With cuteness overload and a low level of difficulty, try your hand at something similar for a photo-worthy first cake.

Source: Mrs Lardeedah

Dressed To Impress

Made with lace, layers and a lot of love, this masterpiece has a strawberry swirl and ganache centre – so it’s pink from the inside all the way out. It’s such a beautiful idea for princess-themed birthdays and lovers of all things pink.

Source: Flower & Fondant Designer Cakes

If The Shoe Fits

This work of art by Taylor Made Gourmet highlights the importance of layers when it comes to creating fullness in Dolly Varden dresses. Complete with lace, a white pettiskirt and a beautiful waist tie, it’s that little bit of magic every birthday deserves.

Source: Taylor Made Gourmet

Miraculous

Big, bright and seriously fun, Sassy Cakes Melbourne ticked every box with this Miraculous creation. Involving a buttercream-topped cake and little fondant work, many home cooks could take on something similar with a little time and elbow grease.

Source: Sassy Cakes Melbourne

Ice Queen

Are you more comfortable piping buttercream than rolling fondant? This Elsa creation demonstrates just how stunning piped rosettes look when clustered together on a cake. Just equip yourself with a pastry bag and leaf tip and get piping.

Source: Baked By Melissa

Mermaid Magic

Whether your little ones love Ariel or all things mermaid, this cake is guaranteed to have kids smiling ear to ear. Full disclosure, the very talented Elise used stacked round cakes for this, but she does point out that a Dolly Varden cake tin works just as well. Want the rock even higher? Consider adding a round cake to the base to lift it up a little.

Source: My Cupcake Addiction

There’s more where this came from! Head over to our collections of Paw Patrol cakes for more clever ideas for special birthdays!