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?

Another vote for using the cake as the octopus body rather than having it on top. You could use a pudding basin.

Cake as the octopus body would still be really wow but much less of a balancing act.

I haven't read every post here, so this tip may have been suggested already:-
Roll out your fondant on a thin layer of cornflour, not icing sugar. That way the fondant will not stick to your work surface.
Also, don't forget the crumb coat of butter icing between the sponge and the fondant. This keeps everything neat and crumb-free and gives the fondant something to grip onto.

I made a unicorn cake last month, from a tutorial on Youtube. The end product was fabulous (even though I say it myself) but the decorating ingredients and equipment would have bought 3 ready made cakes.

You can do it - best of luck and please come back with a photo of the end result.

Try it. My mate had never made a cake until 4 years ago, she made her daughter a similar style cake one year, discovered she was very talented a d now has a thriving cake business. ,

Go for it...

Most of the tips I was going to give have been said (tools, crumb coat, leave loads of time, use anything other than fondant)

Watch videos before you start Wilton have really good instructional videos.

This white cake is a good base - let it cool in the tins and an American large egg is a UK medium.

Of course you can do it! What's the harm in trying.

I started baking cakes out of necessity due to food allergies. Haven't had a major disaster but a few wonky cakes, but the kids were delighted anyway.

Hardest bit for me at first was getting the fondant flat on the sides, you need to keep pulling it back out away from the cake and then smooth down to make sure there are no folds. There's loads of videos on you tube.

I would also use cake for the octopus head. don't bother with edible ink pens, they never look good.

I am rubbish at baking and would never contemplate attempting it so fair dues.

My sister had a cake with grass green icing for her kids 5th birthday and they were quite sick afterwards. Adults were all fine so I am guessing an overload of icing.

Lurid green vomit was not a good carpet look so whatever about your 1yr old watch out for older nieces and nephews with a sweet tooth! It's gone down in family legend.

Good luck. Cake decorating is a lot harder and more time consuming than some people seem to think!

Wow, I wouldn't know where to begin but it's worth having a go. But only if you're brave enough to show a pic on here when it's done,

Put a cake dowel or two nder the octopus head to stop it sinking into the cake.

Ponoka7 - no offence meant - but that blue octopus actually looks like a really scary blue spider.

[quote Birthdaycakehelp]@MishMashMummy it’s more I was thinking fondant on top would be easier and look neater, and I wouldn’t get it smeared everywhere while I was faffing with the octopus legs - am I being hopelessly naive about the ease of working with fondant icing?[/quote]
I think the thing to remember with fondant is that it isn't playdoh or clay or whatever, even though it looks like it - you can't keep rolling it up and trying again, or fiddling with it, especially by hand, as it'll be a sticky, grubby (and unhygienic) mess. So a) you really do need tools to do anything complicated and to get it looking smooth and b) don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good - let it go when it looks ok, especially on a first attempt, as trying to adjust it usually results in it looking worse

I made my DS a train cake with a fondant Thomas, a train track and a tunnel for his birthday before last. It was the first decorated cake I've made and it turned out ok. But:

• It will take 3 times as long as you think it will.
• Covering anything with fondant is a bitch. The cake was the "hill" that the tunnel went through and the fondant kept splitting so I had to roll it out around 50 times.
• You need a squeaky clean non-stick work surface. I cling-filmed my kitchen worktop so I could just peel the fondant off once I'd rolled it big enough.
• You need plastic sterile gloves or the fondant will stick to your hands.
• Coloured fondant is easier but costs a lot more than white and you can't get the exact colour you want. It's relatively easy to dye fondant with food colouring if you're prepared to put some elbow grease in! Don't (I mean DO NOT!!!) overdo it on the food colouring.

Ok so I’m now leaning towards blue buttercream to cover the cake and the fondant (rice crispy cake head) octopus on top. I’m so grateful for all the tips (keep them coming!) and I promise to update with a photo no matter how terrible!

Do it! Either way it’ll be a delicious cake and you’ll enjoy looking back at photos etc. Check out the icing artist on you tube she has really good tips about decorating cakes etc

@Birthdaycakehelp

Ok so I’m now leaning towards blue buttercream to cover the cake and the fondant (rice crispy cake head) octopus on top. I’m so grateful for all the tips (keep them coming!) and I promise to update with a photo no matter how terrible!

Noooo! Go with the fondant it looks much more professional. You could always go with buttercream if the fondant doesn;t work.

Haven’t read all the responses so not sure if this has already been said but I think it’s definitely doable. I would do the following:

-Madeira cake for the sponge, it’s more robust than a Victoria sponge type, easier to decorate.
-I’d use buttercream to cover the cake so it’s not so heavy on the fondant icing plus buttercream is easier to get a smooth finish.
-You’ll need an offset spatula to smooth the buttercream, so 2 coats, one thin to crumb coat and then another for decoration. I recommend the colour splash gel colourings, you only need a tiny amount so won’t be too many additives for baby.
-I’d recommend a turntable for when you are decorating, especially for the buttercream part, they make it so much easier.
-Make the Octopus from rice crispies/marshmallow then cover with fondant and definitely use stencils for lettering.
-I’d make all of the fondant decorations a day or two before so it’s not such a big job and not so overwhelming. They keep well in a sealed sandwich bag/Tupperware dish.

Good luck, it’s a very cute cake!

I'm going to give away a BIG family secret and recommend Wright's Madeira cake mix. Usually I love making cakes from scratch, but I have learned that decorating a cake is enough of a challenge in itself, so I always use this mix for party cakes. Ironically I have had more compliments on the taste of this version than on any of my painstaking homemade efforts! I've also used their chocolate fudge cake mix in the past, which worked very well.
The resulting cake holds up really well to decorating. It also freezes well, so you can prepare the cake in advance, and then you have more time to focus just on the decoration. I also found it easier to apply the crumb coating of buttercream while the cake was still slightly frozen and more solid.

For the octopus head, you could use a cake-pop style mix of cake crumbs mixed with buttercream, covered in fondant. But personally I like the idea of the octopus head as the main cake, with the tentacles as decoration. Much much easier for a first attempt, and actually more fun overall.

Provided it doesn’t look like any of these I think you’ll be ok .
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/pablovaldivia/100-cake-fails

I wouldn’t have high expectations being your first attempt and all, you’re setting the bar quite high. The best cake I ever did was a gruffalo one but it was basically just a chocolate cake with some icing for the eyes, teeth, tusks etc.

Be prepared to spend more than you think

Recently made DS an iron man cake and that fucker cost me 3 times it would have done if I had just bought a shop cake.

I was nearly in tears from the stress of it all because I was desperate to make it look half decent and I really didn’t want to let my ds down.

It wasn’t a perfect finish, but he enjoyed it.

I bought dd’s a few weeks later instead of putting myself through the same ordeal

@mistywillow17

I'm going to give away a BIG family secret and recommend Wright's Madeira cake mix. Usually I love making cakes from scratch, but I have learned that decorating a cake is enough of a challenge in itself, so I always use this mix for party cakes. Ironically I have had more compliments on the taste of this version than on any of my painstaking homemade efforts! I've also used their chocolate fudge cake mix in the past, which worked very well. The resulting cake holds up really well to decorating. It also freezes well, so you can prepare the cake in advance, and then you have more time to focus just on the decoration. I also found it easier to apply the crumb coating of buttercream while the cake was still slightly frozen and more solid.

For the octopus head, you could use a cake-pop style mix of cake crumbs mixed with buttercream, covered in fondant. But personally I like the idea of the octopus head as the main cake, with the tentacles as decoration. Much much easier for a first attempt, and actually more fun overall.

This is the mix I recommended upthread. You can get it in aldi (or Sainsburys) in a bag.

My own Madeira is always too dry but this one holds well.

If you’re going to make the head as the cake itself just be aware that getting a crease free, smooth fondant on a dome cake isn’t going to be easy for someone who has never done that before. It’s hard enough doing it on a flat topped cake!

If you can bake a cake, great. The buttercream sea will be fairly straight forward to do, instead of the swirls on the edges I would do dots to look like bubbles?

I would find the octopus way too difficult but I'm not artistic at all! I would buy a plastic octopus to use and save the stress. A bag of seaside toys would work to use a starfish or shell as decoration around the bottom?

I decorate about 2 cakes a year (2dc). I would say it looks do-able.

My tips...
*Make a madeira cake rather than normal sponge (more solid to take the decorations).
*It will take far far longer than you anticipate (I have finished quite a few cakes at 2am).
*Buy a cardboard cake box large enough to store it in.

• You will be the biggest critic so relax if it isn't quite perfect, no one will notice (or at least won't care) cracks or wobbles in the icing.

Good luck and enjoy!

I started with an image much like yours. This is what I ended up with.

To be fair she totally loved it.