I recently made this lovely Dora The Explorer cake for a girls 3rd Birthday Celebration. She loves Dora.. (my daughter too). I think she's fun.

The cake inside in my devil's food chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and homemade sugar paste. I have a video on how to make Dora. And yet, the cake is fairly simple and straight forward. I also have a write up below on how I made the details just in case you have any questions.
First, the cake is an 8" round , two layers.
For those of you that would like more details. Here's what I did.
- I made Dora a couple of days ahead of time.
- Next, bake, level, tort, fill and crumb coat the cake (have a videos showing how to).
- Then, I coated the cake with more buttercream and chilled it in the fridge.
- Next, I marbled blue, green and yellow fondant. I did the marbling in a circular direction as compared to vertical lines.
- Once I had rolled and covered the cake with fondant, I then marbled some white and blue fondant and cut out a long strip for the water.
- Then, I placed it on the cake and surrounded it with stones. I marbled the stones with white and black fondant.
- Next I hand painted the grass on the sides of the cake. You could also pipe the grass with Royal Icing or Butter cream
- For the trees, I rolled logs of brown fondant. Then, I split it at one end to make the branches.
- Next, I cut the leaves freehand from green sugar paste. But, you could use a Lilly or similar cutter.
- And, I spread a lot of blossoms in different colors and sizes all around the cake.
- I piped grass in shades of green.
- Lastly, I used white Royal Icing for the water waves on the blue/white stream.
I made Dora's map by just rolling a piece of white fondant strip then adding the details. Supported with a spaghetti.
In addition, I have a video on how to make Dora. It's a slow version. So, if you choose you might be able to make her watching the video. She looks quite difficult but not really.
Watch the video below and you will see. Also, Dora is supported with skewers as you will see in the video below.
Dora the Explorer!!
I hope you found this post useful. And, I do hope you have fun making Dora.
And, you can also use the same video if you were making just a girl sugar model. Just change the colors and she won't look like Dora. Trust me! Have fun!!!
Linda Sarah Musoke
This is by far the best Dora the explorer cake I have come across. I am going to give it a try this weekend and I hope it comes out just as beautifully as yours. Thank you so very much Veena. You're a sweet person. Blessings
Kavita Gandhi
Hi Veena, absolutely wonderful - how does one place an order with you? Where are you located? I am in US
Kavita Gandhi
Hi Veena, absolutely wonderful - how does one place an order with you? Where are you located? I am in US
Shirleide Lima
Ficou perfeito... Lindo!!!
Geeta Naidu
Hi Veena, the cake is amazing! I wish I had these directions last year when I made a Dora cake for my daughter's 3rd birthday. My toppers were pretty much trial & error on my part 🙂