Baking challenge

Just because I like to make life difficult for myself (it's The Guilt, you know) I've promised Eden that we can spend Sunday morning baking a cake for her 6th (gasp!) Birthday party in the afternoon. Of course, the real mistake I made was asking her what kind of cake she'd like. "A pink princess castle cake, with a Barbie princess on the top of it just like the one in The Princess and the Pauper'", she replied. There are clearly downsides to having highly creative, imaginative children, like the fact that they never just answer a question like, "What kind of birthday cake would you like?" with something simple like, "Ooh, a nice chocolate one would be perfect", which would be far more convenient, as chocolate fudge cake is the only thing I know how to bake. Sigh. So I've spent a more than proper amount of time on the Internet this afternoon hunting the perfect princess castle cake recipe. As of 9.33pm this evening I still haven't found one that doesn't assume a great deal more baking and cake-decorating experience than I can ever hope to attain. I am starting to panic, just slightly.My only hope lies in Annabel Karmel, that kitchen-goddess-of-a-mother and setter-of-standards-that-real-life-mums-can-never-hope-to-achieve. Normally, I hate the silly cow, natch. But this weekend, she might just save my bacon with The Complete Party Planner, which, Amazon reliably informs me, features a recipe for failproof princess party cake. I'll let you know.