AIBU to think I could make a cake this - never done decorating before

[Birthdaycakehelp]

So it’s my DDs first birthday in a few weeks and I want to make her a special cake - yes I know she won’t have a bloody clue what it is or what her birthday is but we’ll have a few people round for cake and party food bits (nothing fancy) and I’d like the cake to look special.

She has a lot of octopus toys and things that she likes to play with and I’ve got it in my head to make her an octopus cake. I’m a decent baker and I can make a nice cake but I’ve never done any kind of cake decorating at all. AIBU to think I could make something like the picture below. Looking at the steps it seems like it should be doable but am I kidding myself. I’m worried it’s going to look like one of those cliched expectations vs reality cake posts!

Give it to me straight. AIBU? Can I do this?

Epic fail on the title - hopefully you all know what I mean!

In reality it probably won’t look like the picture of you haven’t done it before BUT it will be made with love and as long as it tastes nice nobody will care about the look least of all her.

Have fun

I've never decorated or baked a cake either, but I'm not bad with play dough and I reckon this is a good simple design, roll a ball for body and squash it flat at bottom and make thick 'snakes' for legs and make them a little thinner at bottom. Not sure I could do the clam shell, but I think it's a lovely cake and very doable. Good luck!

There is a high chance it will look nothing like that and will take far longer than you imagine but go for it if you want.

I wanted to make a unicorn cake for my daughters 1st birthday, thought “it surely can’t be hard to make a horn and some eyelashes”.

I had two practice runs, the bastard horn was actually really hard to twirl into a shape that didn’t resemble a penis. It looked like a really awful sex themed cake both times.

So I strongly suggest at least practicing in small version first

Whatever you decide, please post photos!

Are you generally quite artistic or creative? I’m not, so it is no surprise whatsoever to me that I can’t decorate cakes.

My limit is to cover with fondant. And then make a template block number and draw around that on a different colour fondant and cut that out. Put on top of cake, add 3D decoration and put a ribbon around the base. To me, that’s a brilliant job well done and I am super proud!!

As someone who has made many a birthday cake I'd say your problem is going to be the fondant if you haven't worked with it before. It can be a nightmare. If you go with fondant buy the shop mafe colours don't try and colour your own it takes too much practice otherwise you will end up with a sticky mess. I would suggest using a butter cream or chocolate gauche but that is not going to give you the smooth finished octopus!

I decorate cakes (for home, not as a business, too stressful!) - my total amateur tips would be:

Buy a smoother for the top of the cake. Really cheap and if you get the foundation right the rest looks more professional.

Skip those rings on the tentacles and buy a food colouring pen and draw them on instead. Ditto the black pupils and smile.

Skip the frilly edge round the top of the cake. Skip the clam.

Buy a cutter for the number - or alphabet cutters for any names. Read the instructions on using them well (you have to dust them with icing sugar or they don’t release). They do funky fonts and look professional.

Ice the board before putting the cake on (again use a smoother!) looks more pro.

Mix a little moulding powder with the fondant if you want the 3d tentacles to hold their shape. It’s the stuff sugarcrafters use when making fondant 3d work and it helps it to set and not ‘flop’. I’ll remember the name of it in a min!

Tylo powder! That’s it.

Oh I will definitely post photos even if it’s just so you can all laugh! I think the octopus head is a fondant covered rice crispy cake which feels doable. I wasn’t planning to do things like the clam shells but I thought I could get some edible sea themed decorations to stick on around it? And then just have blue rolled fondant for the sea. One of my worries is whether this would all be too heavy for what will be a spongy cake and I end up with everything just sinking.

Oh - last thing. Supermarket pre-coloured fondant is a tad garish. As a pp said you can mix your own but it ends up sticky and you’ll have coloured hands! Renshaw icing is good and much bigger colour choices. Lots of online stockists where you would also get pens and a smoother and your tylo powder too.

Yeah not a Victoria sponge. You need a madeira. Aldi do a very easy Madeira mix in a bag of you want to cut that corner. Denser and can take a bit more weight.

That’s pretty ambitious if you’ve never done decorating before.
It will take much longer than you think and require tools you probably don’t own.
I would agree with buying ready made coloured fondant and simplifying it quite a bit.
That octopus is pretty big and the legs will be prone to breaking. Maybe scale it down?

I really appreciate the tips! Thanks so much! Yeah - I am a little worried that I’ve never worked with fondant - I might get some this week to have a practice and a play.

If it were me, I’d make the body a solid ball of fondant, rather than trying to cover anything- will require a lot of fondant, but much easier and less faffy

I have made my kids the cakes they wanted over the years. I have very little skill, but generally the kids are happy with it.
My favourite was a pirate ship, which was more construction than anything else, with chocolate fingers.
Give it a go, I bet your daughter will love it.

I think the octopus bit would be really easy to do, but not sure about the blue sea underneath.

That is VERY ambitious!

You should 100% do it.

I made a smoke alarm cake for DS’s first birthday, as he loved smoke alarms. Even that as a novice baker was a disaster lol, the cake was solid instead of fluffy and the icing all runny. But I much prefer that and the memories and photos of a cake we both made with love to ordering a professional one personally!

Either you’ll smash it and be proud or it’ll be hilarious and a lovely memory. I always think homemade cakes are infused with love however they turn out :)

Sorry, I should say WE made the smoke alarm cake, it was very much a joint effort with DH, who did more of the work than I did!

Have you got a Sainsbury's near you? They usually do 'under the sea' cakes. Have you got the time and money for this? It's more expensive to make cakes than buy them. It's a lovely idea, but most of us are going for shop bought by three years old.

Oh I’m really committed to making not buying (possibly too committed ) My mum used to make all my birthday cakes as a kid and I have such lovely photos and memories of them - I know my daughter is too young to remember this but I’d like a photo of her with this possibly terrible cake that I can show her one day (and probably apologise )

A simpler but effective option is to make a cake and put a toy octopus on it. Or buy a premade fondant octopus/cake topper.

Either way, we need photos

However long you're planning on it taking add at least 2 hours. You will get the rage and walk away at some point but just plan that it'll take longer and you'll end up re-doing loads because you'll be trying to get it even/legs same length. I do a fair bit of cake decorating but one last year drove me mad and DS ended up with a cartoon character that looked like they'd taken yokes in 90s but they only kicked in on half the face.

Cross posted @Ponoka7 - ah it would definitely be way cheaper and much much easier to buy one but I really want to make it - I have a stubborn streak that doesn’t always make my life easy thanks for the tip though - I will almost certainly buy a backup cake just in case it’s a true disaster!

Have you seen the Netflix show Nailed it! It’s hilarious!

I’m sure you will do an excellent job. My son wants a Cory Carson cake for his third...

Don’t make the body solid fondant. It’ll just be a massive waste and be probably heavier thank light Rice Krispies cake in the end. At least it’ll get ate too.

If you’re worried about it sinking use wooden skewers through to support it, 2 should do it, either side of the ball through the cake. Remove when you cut into to.

It’ll probably look wonky and janky but that’s the fun of making cakes! The love poured into them makes up for the less than perfect finish and I love looking back on mine as a child I was always amazed by them, even though my mum was a rubbish baker and they were a bit “weird” looking.