My daughter is obsessed with the ocean, and was turning 7, so I thought I’d combine these things in her cake and make a Sand and Surf Birthday Cake.
I made 3 chocolate bar cakes, and trimmed the corner off of one, to make the 7 shape. I then coloured the fondant ready made icing with a orange/yellow dye and covered the top – of the 7 with it. I coloured small amounts of the fondant with bright colours, and made snakes with the colours, and with plain white icing, alternating the color then the white and squashed the snakes together to make the towels, and placed them on the beach in a line.
The sunbaking people were purchased at a cake decorating shop. I fashioned bathers out of the coloured fondant(one of the ‘sunbakers’ is taking a dip in the ocean) and thought that it would be wise to include cocktail umbrellas to be sunwise.
The icing I used for the ocean is egg whites, beaten until they are stiff, then a toffee mixture slowly added while still beating (the toffee mixture is water and caster sugar boiled until dissolved, then simmer until toffee texture – ready when dropped into a cup of water, and can be rolled into a ball).
This icing is very fluffy and meringue-like. It has a glossy finish, so it needs to be made either the day of, or the day before you need the cake. Perfect for a ‘watery look’. I kept some of the white icing and set aside, I then dyed the rest of it blue. I iced small sections of the cake, and gradually dyed the cake darker and darker blue, until the bottom of the 7 – which is deep sea. I then used the white icing I had set aside, to add foam to the waves breaking on the beach.
I added plastic sea creatures from the $2 shop. I used coloured lollies around the base and cut some fruit roll ups in strips for sea weed.
My daughter absolutely loved her ocean cake and it fed 30 people easily.
Hi Megan
I really loved your glossy icing and I’m amazed at the way you made it stand up like that.
Thanks, the icing is very ‘meringue’ like, so it sticks up like that on its own. I use it all the time now. It not only looks good, it tastes great too!