Shark Ocean Birthday Cake

(Would have been cute but my husband ate them all before I finished the cake so I didn't put any on this cake. Annoying. He KNEW I was saving them for this.)

Wilton icing bag and tip 2 for making orange coral

Wilton icing bag and tip 352 to make seaweed

BEFORE BAKING DAY

Before the day you bake the cake, prepare the cake boards, find a cake box, and find a spot for this cake in the fridge. I would also recommend making the sea shells ahead of time. Michael had fun helping to make the sea shells for his cake. We used candy molds similar to these.

To make the candy seashells, microwave a bowl of Wilton white candy melts (or Nestle chocolate chips) for 1 minute at 50% power. Stir. Then microwave at 30 second intervals and stir until the candy is nicely melted. Spoon it into your molds and scrape off the excess. We made plain white shells, plain brown chocolate shells, and some white/chocolate swirl shells. Once the shells are hard, you can use some colored pearl dust to add some color to the shells. Simply brush some of the colored dust onto the shells using a tiny clean paint brush or a Q-tip. You could also use colored candy melts and skip the pearl dust step. Put the candy molds in the freezer to harden faster. Store the shells in the fridge or freezer until you are ready to decorate the cake.

Decorating the Cake

Bake the cakes according to the box. Use back even strips. Read this page you need advice on bake-even strips. When the cakes are fully cool, you can begin decorating. I do not recommend torting the layers for this cake. Since so much decorating is happening on the sides, I'd rather the cake be only 2 layers instead of 4. 

Mix up the buttercream icing. Save about 1.5 cups icing aside to be colored orange and green. Save a tiny bit of white to be the white caps on the waves. Color the rest of the icing blue with the Wilton sky blue food coloring. 

Put a smear of icing in the center of the cake board and place the first cake on it. Press it down gently. The icing helps "glue" the cake to the board. Then put some icing in an icing bag and pipe an icing dam around the cake. This is only necessary if you are using filling.

Then spoon in some delicious chocolate ganache. 

After you put the filling in (or just ice that first layer in blue), put the second layer on and press it down gently. Next, put a thin layer of icing all over the cake. This is called the crumb coat. Most of the crumbs will stick to this layer and won't show up in the outer layer. Put the cake in the fridge for at least 15 minutes for crumb coat of icing to harden. This is a great time to put the cake in the fridge and go to bed for the night if it is already midnight. 

After the crumb coat is cold and hard, put on a thick layer of icing. Ice the sides as smoothly as possible. They don't need to be perfectly smooth because this is supposed to be the ocean. 

Then put a very thick layer of icing on top of the cake and use a spoon to shape it into waves. I dotted on a tiny bit of white icing to make "white caps" on the waves. 

Next, I added brown sugar around the cake to make the sandy ocean floor. This does make a bit of a mess. 

Now, is the fun part! Start decorating! I wedged 2 snickers into the icing on the side of the cake and made a treasure chest with yellow M&M's. I used 2 seashells to make a clam and put a Sixlet pearl inside. 

Make sure to boil your toy shark for 10 minutes and then let it cool for at least 15 minutes before you put it on the cake. A hot shark will melt your icing. 

I arranged gummy fish and seashells as cute as I could. 

I used tip 2 and orange icing to pipe some coral. I used tip 352 and green icing to pipe seaweed. 

The cake was a huge hit! Michael loved it, and so did Jon and Katie! If you have any questions, e-mail me. phd.annie@gmail.com. Also, please check out the book my daughter wrote, illustrated and published at age 8!

--Annie Pryor, Ph.D.