• Spray and line a 26 cm springform tin and preheat the oven to 160 fan forced or 170 C/ 340 F. I made 1 x 26 cm round cake and 1 x Dolly Varden for a dolls dress shape cake plus a very small amount made into a 6 in round pan
• melt the butter and set aside for a couple of minutes,
• Mix the milk, cold coffee, buttermilk, vanilla and eggs together. Set aside.
• Mix all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl of a stand mixer and blend till well combined
• Mix all of the ingredients together and beat well.
• Pour into the tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Cool. You can make this cake and freeze it or make it several days ahead
• Repeat this again making the Dolly Varden Cake. Sit in a tray and bake till a skewer comes out clean.

Chocolate buttercream

• Leave the butter and cream cheese out for an hour or two to soften. Beat them together till very light and fluffy. Add the cocoa and beat again. Add 1/2 the sugar and beat well, then taste. Add more of the sugar and beat well. Add a pinch of salt . If you want a darker colour add a little more cocoa. A drop or two of lemon juice will also bring out the flavour a little too

caramel

• Put the sugar, lemon and water into a pot and melt over medium heat till pale golden. add the butter and mix in , then the cream. Whisk adding the salt. Cool straight away

icing the cake

• Put the cake onto a large cake board. Cut the cake in 1/2 and paint with caramel then fill with buttercream. Cover the outside of the 26 cm base chocolate cake with buttercream and chill till firm. Cut a round into the top of the Dolly Varden cake big enough to fit the doll into (if yours has legs like mine did.) Then cut into slices and sandwich with buttercream ( you can skip this if you want). Then coat the whole Dolly Varden cake with buttercream. Chill till firm.
• Using a nice space on the bench or dining room table roll out the aqua blue icing with a rolling pin using small amounts of icing sugar to stop it sticking. Always use a large spatula knife to run under the icing and stop it tearing. measure your cake size and roll out (1 kg) the icing big enough to fit the whole cake. Gently press onto the cake using a cake smoother or smooth piece of material. press into the sides and cut off the excess.
• Cover the Dolly Varden cake , cutting a whole in the top last. Put this on the top of your cake into the position that you want your doll to be standing in. Better to one side so her dress can spread out at the back.
• Mix the 1/2 egg white in a bowl and beat till frothy. Add the icing sugar until you have a nice fluffy white icing theat you can pipe and use as a glue to stick pieces af fondant together ( You can also buy a packet of Royal icing from the supermarket. follow the instructions and this will work well too.
• Dress your doll. Cut out a white or blue blouse and wrap it around her body. i made two white sleeves and a black bodice, then added some buttons and sprinkles. see Howtocookthat.net for details
• Colour 3/4 the molding paste pink and roll out thin as you can ready to add to the Doll. Put the Doll into the cake and add the dress. If you have trouble with it stretching like I did in the heat, you can add a nice apron , just like mine. Decorate any way you like with glitter, cachous, hearts.
• I suggest you follow Ann's tutorial on making snow flakes too. They cover all manner of problems . Drawn a cross, then run another cross through that. Follow this by putting v's on the end of each line and than a v on every second line to finish.
• I used a small piping bag or a snap lock bag and pipped all the way around the base of the cake and around the sleeves and tunic of the doll.