She wanted to get Serafino on her side, and she had decided that she’d start by offering him a cake for children. Every morning the mothers of Roccafitta stopped by the baker’s to buy a snack for their children, and Margherita intended to wow them with a colorful cake decorated like a Barbie. She was sure that the little girls would be enchanted by the beautiful dress decorated with garlands of flowers of all colors. After finishing breakfast, she took the icing she’d prepared the day before and colored it pink. She’d baked the cake in a round pan with a hole in the middle so that she’d have a place to put the doll. She’d make the doll’s fluffy outfit out of the cake and the icing. She sliced the sponge cake and filled it with custard. Then, after dusting the work surface with confectioners’ sugar, she rolled out the fondant for the dress. By lightly coating the cake with apricot jam, she got the icing to stick to the cake. Last, she shaped some tiny rosebuds from the icing and artfully arranged them to hide any imperfections.
