This is the ultimate mermaid cake! The cutest little mermaid sits among sweet, chocolatey sea creatures and even has a fin made from cake pops! You can find dolls without legs at baking supply stores to use as the mermaid, so no need to worry about trying to fit the legs somewhere in the cake. Decorate and slice with ease!
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1½ cups sour cream (or milk)
Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
- 5 cups confectioner’s sugar
- Blue, green, and purple food coloring
- Isomalt coral (Coral Reef Cupcakes)
- Chocolate Seashell Truffles
- Candy rocks
- Colorful candies
- Barbie doll top (without legs)
How to Make It
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Bake the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 4 (6-inch) round cake pans.
- Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and smooth. Add the vanilla extract, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing with each addition.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add this to the batter in 2 additions, alternating with the sour cream.
- Spoon the batter into your prepared baking pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centers comes out clean. Cool completely. Make the Buttercream
- Beat the butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, then add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, beating with each addition.
- Dye the buttercream pale blue. Dye ¼ cup of the blue buttercream green, and dye another ¼ cup purple. Place the green buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a small, angled piping tip. Place 1 tablespoon of the purple buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a small, round piping tip, and the remaining buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a small, star-shaped piping tip. Assembly
- Slice the tops and bottoms off the cakes to smooth the surface and remove any excess browning. Keep the cake scraps! Stack the cakes and spread some blue buttercream between each layer. Cover the entire cake in a thin layer of buttercream and place in the fridge to chill.
- Crumble the cake scraps into fine pieces. Add a couple dollops of buttercream and mix until the cake sticks together and can be molded into a shape. Mold it into what will become the mermaid’s tail, creating a curve at the end to allow it to sit comfortably on the cake. Place the tail in the fridge to chill and stiffen.
- Cover the cake in a thick, generous layer of buttercream. Press some candy rocks onto the base of the cake. Place the remaining blue buttercream into a piping bag and snip off the end to create a large, round piping tip. Pipe dollops where you plan to stick candy and decorations. This will act as glue, keeping everything in place and propped up.
- Place the mermaid tail on top of the cake and stick the Barbie doll top on top. Use the green buttercream to pipe scallops onto the tail, starting at the tip of the tail and working towards the body. To make the scallop shape, position the piping tip so that the narrow opening is against the tail and pipe little “u” shapes repeatedly. Cover the entire tail.
- Pipe the bikini with the purple buttercream. Use the remaining purple buttercream to pipe little barnacles around the sides of the cake. Decorate the cake with Isomalt Coral, Chocolate Seashell Truffles, sprinkles, and mermaid-colored candy.
- The blank space on the side of the cake can be used as space to pipe a name, or “Happy Birthday!”
