My son wanted to have a shark birthday cake for his 7th birthday party. Considering it was for a child’s birthday party, I didn’t want a cake totally covered in fondant. So I decided to do a four layer chocolate cake (9″), frost it in butter cream, and form a fondant attacking shark on the top of the cake.
I decided to paint the fondant after it was formed, rather than pre-color the fondant. It turned out great and made the fondant actually really glossy. I made an attacking head, a dorsal fin, and a tail. I wanted to make it look like the shark was just coming out of the water. I had printed out a picture of a Great White Shark and used it as my inspiration, I noticed that the teeth were irregular in the photo, so I used two toothpicks to “pick” at the fondant to make teeth. They turned out very “ferocious!”
On the sides of the cake, I made coral using a leaf tip and gummy fish that we found at the store. My son wanted to help decorate his cake, so he was in charge of putting on the gummy candy. (I also let him do the crumb coat and decide “where” to put his shark.”
I used a star tip to pipe around the outside bottom of the cake and he wanted his name written with the star tip. It only took me a couple of hours to do the whole cake, and he loved it! And he got to eat the shark at the end of the party!
I’m planning to make this cake for my son’s birthday in a couple weeks and was wondering if you would give me specific instructions for it?
I was hoping to make something very similar this week for my sons birthday on 2/12. How did you paint the fondant and with what? I have never worked with fondant before. Thanks! Patsy
Hi,
Sorry got these comments a little bit late. The sharks are simply formed out of white fondant that I bought at the craft store. It is really forgiving and gives you a long work time before if dries out. After I formed the shark… in three pieces I simply painted my gel food coloring on. I diluted the coloring with a little bit of water to get the perfect effect. The teeth were the coolest part. Sharks have several rows of teeth, so I took a toothpick and just roughed up the fondant so that it would look like teeth. The red coloring was supposed to make the gums look pink, but it actually made it look like the shark just had lunch. Unintended consequence that actually turned out pretty good. The rest of the cake is frosted in buttercream. It was super easy and a lot of fun. All the kids loved the shark. Good Luck!