How To Make A Mermaid Cake ⋆ Sugar, Spice And Glitter

Welcome to Sugar, Spice & Glitter! My newsletter is the best way to stay up to date with our delicious recipes, fun kids’ activities and other gems for Rockstar Moms. Please note, this post may contain affiliate links which help support the cost of running this website. For more details, please see our Full Disclosure . Last year, we shared Miss G’s kid-made Sandcastle Cake which was the centrepiece of her birthday party’s food table, but I never shared the Mermaid Cake we made for our family celebration! I first saw this petal frosting technique on Pinterest - a picture for the Cake Blog’s DIY Rainbow Petal Cake. It’s a really cool and surprisingly easy technique - so easy Miss G was able to do most of the cake by herself. This cake frosting technique is so incredibly forgiving - it’s actually easier than trying to get a nice, even flat frosting.

You could alternate the colors of the “scales” but since my then-3 year old was doing most of the work, we kept it simple. To make the frosting, beat the butter and icing sugar together and add the vanilla and just enough cream to get the consistency you want. You don’t want a runny frosting, but you want it to be easy to spread - so adjust the consistency with more sugar for a tougher consistency, or more cream for a softer consistency. Divide the frosting into as many bowls as you want colors of frosting, and dye with the food coloring. Spoon each color of frosting into it’s own piping bag, twisting the top and snipping off the tip. First, after your cakes are completely cooled, use your preferred way to cutting the domed tops off of the cakes - we like the dental floss technique. Use a thick layer of frosting to stick the “raw” edges of the cake together. This will prevent crumbs from getting into the frosting.

Next, you’re going to do a “crumb coat.” This is simply a first layer of frosting that serves as a barrier between crumbs and the final layer of frosting on the cake. Using the piping bag, make generous dollops of frosting on the cake, approximately a quarter in diameter and about a half Tablespoon of frosting each. Take the offset spatula and gently touching it to one dollop of frosting at a time, pull the top of the dollop towards the side, starting with loose pressure and then evening the frosting out to the crumb coating. You want one edge of the dollop to remain full, and you’re kind of dragging-squishing the other side. Repeat for the whole cake. For the last row, you may want to switch hands and come at the dollop from the opposite side - pushing it flat into the next dollop instead of pulling it against the cake. Decorate the top of the cake as you’d like - adding pearls, sprinkles, figurines, chocolate coins - whatever will make this a special mermaid cake for your celebration! This cake frosting technique could easily be used to make a fish cake, a bird cake, or just do as the Cake Blog did and make a pretty pattern with the colours. I even think a white or chocolate frosted cake would look gorgeous like this. Do you have a little mermaid who would love this cake for a special occasion, Make sure to pin it for later!

Add in half of the flour mixture and mix on low until just combined. With the mixer running, slowly pour in the milk. Add in the second half of the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Separate the batter into 2 mixing bowls. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and yellow food coloring to one bowl. Fold the batter until combined and even in color. Add the strawberry preserves and pink food coloring to the other bowl. Fold the batter until combined and even in color. Evenly distribute the batter into the cake pans so that you have two pans of each color. Bake for about 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes before removing the cakes from their pans. Once the cakes have completely cooled, use a long serrated knife to carefully level each cake.