Coolest Fish Birthday Cake Ideas and Decorating Tips

I got this fish birthday cake from my father’s girlfriend. I’m a huge fan of a Balloonfish named “Diodon Holacanthus”. She used biscuit and cream and eyes with marzipan and raisins.

Stunning Fondant Fish Birthday Cake

Fish birthday cake by Ally S., Deltona, FL

I made this fish birthday cake for my son (11 yrs.) and my husband’s birthday (lost count!). They fall only 2 days apart, so I have the pleasure of making a cake that they both like, not an easy task. I make special cakes for family and friends every year ranging from a goldfish bowl to a fire truck, so they look forward to what they would see when the party starts. No cake is hard to make, just the size makes me think twice.

Figuring out Fondant

This is actually my first time I’ve use fondant, a recipe I found online. Pretty easy to use if you keep your hands dry and dusted with powdered sugar. The cake is fairly large, about 14″ X 8″ X 2″. It’s made from 1 1/2 sheet cakes, standard yellow with butter cream frosting. I found out the hard way that the frosted cake has to be chilled very well for the fondant to adhere to the cake.

Another drawback I found was that any imperfections in the leveling of the cake will show once the fondant is placed (i.e. peaks and valleys).

Once the fondant is on the cake, it’s very, very difficult to move so make sure the fondant is long enough to cover the cake if it’s an odd shape like mine. Wrap the fondant on a rolling pin dusted with powered sugar to make it easier to apply.

Painting the Cake

We have a saltwater aquarium with lots of different fishes in it, my son’s favorite being the Flame Angel. The bright, vivid colors were a little problem. So instead of just mixing the food coloring with the fondant and risk dyeing my counters, I simply painted the cake. I used the gel food coloring from Wilton and a touch of water to make it more of a watercolor wash. Use a very soft brush and make sure it’s wash thoroughly.

I started with the dark colors, mapping out where the fins and stripes are at, don’t forget the eyes! Everything was drawn free hand, so unfortunately I don’t have any patterns to go by just a neurotic fish that doesn’t like to be stared at. Also, make sure the fondant is ‘worked’ completely or it will start to crack, not a good thing to see.

I started with the pure orange on the outside while I slowly added in the yellow. Any artist will tell you to start with the lighter colors then work to the dark color, but working with the fondant, it was easier to start the opposite direction. I also wanted to give it a more rounded effect rather than just flat. Don’t work too hard on any particular spot or the fondant will start to break down, causing a ‘dark’ spot on the cake.

Finishing Touches

The writing was done with the good ol’ ziplock bag trick. My decorator tips went MIA when my husband cleaned the kitchen. All in all, from start to finish, it took about 4 hours to do, that’s including time in the refrigerator about 1 hour.

The planning was done on the fly while the cake was baking. I used that time to decorate the house with red and orange streamers and balloons.

Everyone loved it, from the kid’s moms to my family. My next project will be a motorcycle (upright). I will post that one when it’s done. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy this fish birthday cake!

Pretty Blue Fish Birthday Cake

fish birthday cake by April N., Kirkwood, MO

I baked this fish birthday cake in two round cake pans. The first circle made up the main body of the fish. From the second circle, I cut two crescents, a large one to form the tail, and a narrow one, which I placed on the front of the head to give him a more elongated shape. I used what was left to make the fins.

Gorgeous Candy Melts Decorated Cake

Fish birthday cake by Debbie T., Jacksonville, FL

This fish is a chocolate cake with the mouth, fins and tail molded out of candy melts and then brushed with luster dust.

Cool Homemade Cake With Fish Cookies

Fish birthday cake by Stacy, Chester, NY

My girlfriend had used this fish birthday cake idea for my son’s first birthday. His birthday is in the summer so I went with the Finding Nemo / Tropical theme.

She did a sheet cake half white half chocolate with vanilla filling. The fish on are sugar cookies with a sugar icing glaze, they were cut out from a Wilton cookie cutter that cost 99cents. She decorated the cake with a buttercream icing and put silver sugar sprinkles to make a reflection look in the cakes water icing.

This fish birthday cake was a huge hit and the first three cookies on the front that say “Happy Birthday Jake” represent Scarface, Dori, and Nemo. I hope I got all the names right. The Kids who did not want cake ate the cookies with ice cream so it was a crowd pleaser with young and old.

Fun fish birthday cake

fish birthday cake by Larissa B., Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The theme was actually a fish party thus the idea for a fish birthday cake arose. I made the base of the cake with Betty Crocker’s readymade mix in a huge dish, made some glazed icing (icing sugar and water) after dry took a flat spatula, dipped it in hot water, dried it and put in on the cake to form waves effect. For the fish, I made marzipan and did some icing – put some on toothpicks for mounting purposes and some molded shells around with light blue coconut on the board. I also got some ready made jelly sweets like fish and scattered around. The children were thrilled.

Colorful Homemade Cake

fish birthday cake by April B., Oxford, CT

I made used this birthday cake recipe because my 2 yr old son loves fish. We had a whole party with fish. The fish birthday cake was easy to make. Start with a rectangle cake and make the shape of the fish body. With the leftover cake make the fins and decorate with candy.

Twin Fish Birthday Cakes

fish birthday cake by Jennifer W., Antioch, CA

My son and daughter shared a birthday party (she was 2, he was 4) and we did a fish / Nemo party theme. I made them twin cakes so they could each have their own.

I began with two circle cake pans for each. One became the body, and the other I cut up for the fins. I decorated the bodies with frosting piped in to resemble scales and gave them large white frosting eyes with a dab of blue in the center. The back fins were covered with sprinkles.

Cool M&M Cake

fish birthday cake by Ginger D., Plaucheville, LA

I am not sure how I came up with this fish birthday cake. I played with several sheet cakes until I felt like I had a fish. First, I cut off the corners of the cake to make sort of a football shape then used the corners to make the fish tail and top and bottom fins. Then, I cut out a little triangle for the mouth. I used M&M’s to make scales.

This cake was for my son’s 2nd birthday and everyone loved it.

Cool Necco Wafer fish birthday cake

Fish birthday cake by Vanessa W., Miami, FL

For the cake I baked a 13x9x2-inch cake; I used 6 cups of blue frosting, 2 cups orange-yellow frosting, Necco wafers, and 1 orange Swedish fish. Step 1: Cut and arrange as shown. Step 2: Frost blue, then frost the tail and fins orange. Place the Necco wafers on as scales. Add a Necco wafer and blue M&M as an eye and the orange Swedish fish for the mouth.

Happy fish birthday cake

Fish birthday cake by Gabrielle E., Christchurch, New Zealand

Read Gabrielle’s “Party-Tale”: The story behind the cake…

Cute Homemade Cake

Cake by Heidi B., Farmington, MN

This cake looks easy, but it can be difficult if you don’t take your time. I used an 8′ round cake, butter cream frosting, gumdrops and candy orange slices for this cake.