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?

A few years ago, i decided to make an In The Night Garden cake for my 2yo. I can't even describe what Iggle Piggle looked like. It was bad. My mum and best friend burst out laughing at it (as did I). 8 years on, it still the family joke.

But when DD saw it, her eyes lit up. She tried to say IgPig (she wasn't talking then) and got her Iggle Piggle teddy. She loved that cake.

8years on, I've made many more cakes. Latest being a Gryffindor Unicorn. They aren't showstoppers. But DDs love them. They request something, i try it.

Go for it. It really is the thought that counts.

@Mykittensmittens

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.

Hobbycraft sell coloured icing.

I started the tradition of decorating all DS's cakes myself. It's been really nice because now we remember his birthdays by the cakes I made. I say definitely have a go at it. You'll learn as you go.

I looked at a LOT of youtube tutorials for smoothing fondant over a cake. I can do it now without it looking too bad. if you do fondant and then put the octopus on top with the legs spreading out no one will notice if you have made it a bit wonky. Get some sea shell decorations to cover any imperfections.

I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

My no.1 tip would be to do a crumb coat. Cover the outside of the cake in a thin layer of buttercream. Then chill it till it goes firm before trying to cover in fondant. It’s a pain but I have found it makes a massive difference in how the cake looks. It also makes it far easier to cover (it stops crumbs getting stuck to the fondant.

I’m definitely no professional (enthusiastic amateur is more like it) but I take it back to basics on the design, and work out what you need to make it identifiable and just do that. I’d deliberately use blue buttercream for the main cake, give it a rough finish and maybe mix in some streaks darker and lighter and it’ll look like the sea. You could always buy some little ocean figures to have in reserve in case you run out of time

Make sure to prepare the fondant parts the day before, so Shape them and leave to firm up a bit then you just need to place them on your cake around the octopus body.
I would probably make the cake and buttercream it a day in advance as well just so you know how likely you are to need a shop bought substitute or not

Lovely idea

If you want to make life easier, make a flat octopus - use a basic cake tin for the body, then either cupcakes like this www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/coolest-giant-octopus-birthday-cake-idea-22/ or cut shapes out of a sheet sponge for the legs. Buttercream for icing and white fondant & chocolate buttons for eyes.

This was my attempt, without prior experience or practice runs, of a ladybird cake copied from pictures I goggled. It was far from perfect but DD loved it.

So long as you don't expect perfection from yourself you'll be fine, just give the octopus a go!

Good luck and lots of great advice

I tried making one for my hubby (fisherman at the side of a lake). It was more like a drowning man 😬😬

Hats off to all the cake decorators out there

I’d never decorated a cake in my life but with the help of YouTube managed to make this for my DS’s first birthday. I think I did pretty well!

I'd do it, but over three evenings.
Evening one - bake the Madeira and make your Rice Krispie balls. ( Make spares)
Evening two - stick the layers together with buttercream. Crumb coat, and cover with fondant.
Evening three - make octopus and all decorations. Practice the arrangement on a an upturned bowl. Then move it to the cake once you're happy with it. You won't be able to keep rearranging it on the cake itself as the icing may stain.
But if go for it!
I make all of DS birthday cakes. They're not perfect but no-one cares. And home-baked cakes taste so much better than many bought ones.

Good luck, OP! If you panic, I’ve discovered cake-making people can create cake toppers for like 1/8 the price they’d charge for a full cake. So I’ve used them a couple times to make something fancy that I then put on top of my own cakes.

Hi

Just throwing in my tuppence worth - I am a pretty good baker and for years did various chocolate sponges for birthday cakes which went down well but my girls requested a chocolate biscuit cake one year and it was the easiest thing ever - I usually cover it with a very thin layer of butter cream chill and then cover with a thin layer of fondant in whichever colour goes with the theme of the year. you should get a nice smooth finish on the fondant that way.

Very easy up to the point you are decorating and very easy to control the overall shape of the cake you are decorating. I usually add a bit more chocolate than the recipe suggests so you have a smoother outside of the choc biscuit cake to help with getting the overall iced cake to look smooth .

Just in case of interest.

I made a Pokéball. It was almost round and almost smooth.

You can give it a go certainly OP, childrens birthday cakes are more fun when they're awful anyway but I think it will be a pain in the backside and unlikely to resume the image. Plus costly.

I'd probably use it as inspiration. That's a shed load of fondant that probably will either go to waste or not be eaten. I'd probably do the cake, fondant ice it (buttercream will be messy and look messy if you aren't a pro) and then do a smaller scale octopus and whatever other little sea creatures as decoration. Scaling the sea creatures down in size will make them far easier.

If you're hell bent on thr effect of the octopus atop a whole cake as per the image I'd probably do a two tier cake and recreate it much smaller on the top smaller tier, but I'm lazy.

Otherwise you can get some great bits by searching 'sea creature cake decorations' on google, I won't spam worh long links but I've just seen loads.

Fingers crossed OP, top marks for willingness to give it a crack. Look forward to seeing!

You are all amazing and I love seeing pictures from you brave cake makers who have gone before me! I really am taking all your advice and tips on board - this is so helpful. I’m very much on the fence now as to whether to cover the main cake in blue fondant or blue buttercream. I think the buttercream will taste better but the fondant may look better?

@OnesieWarrior

I’d never decorated a cake in my life but with the help of YouTube managed to make this for my DS’s first birthday. I think I did pretty well!

That’s fantastic 👍

I'm really enjoying reading through this thread. I've made all my DCs cakes. Some have worked out really well. Some have been disastrous

I'd do buttercream for the sea, so much tastier and doesn't need to be perfectly smooth - sea is wavey!

I have no artistic ability at all and I do a themed cake for the kids each year and they love it. Doesn't look anything like a shop cake but it tastes great and it's totally personal to them. I've suggested shop cakes occasionally and they won't budge, mum's cake is now the birthday tradition, along with the excited wait to find out the theme as I keep it secret each year until the candles are lit. Each year in the run up to a birthday, they reminisce over the previous cakes while they try to guess what this year's will be. Makes it worth the work.

Little tip I learned after thinking that making a teddy bear from fondant looked easy...youtube! Also make the legs 1st and stick them on, then let them dry overnight before doing the body/head bit. You can always bake cupcakes to use as heads and do a couple little octopuses, that way you have a shape ready. But seriously do it in stages and let that fondant dry out before adding more bits to it. Use water to glue bits together. Break it down into small bits that you can do in stages as opposed to trying to do it all at once.

I would go for fondant. It doesn’t need to be perfect and will look much better. If you make the sea out of buttercream you can hide any rubbish bits around the bottom. If you buy a piping nozzle for “grass” or similar it would irk well.

Just make sure you don't add to this site...

www.boredpanda.com/funny-cake-fails-expectations-reality/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

You definitely can if you want to. Use fondant for covering and flower paste for fine modelling. Shells etc are usually moulded.

I made a wedding cake recently having no great skill or talent - enthusiasm, YouTube and the right tools. It wasn’t perfect but it was perfectly acceptable and flowers were recognisable.

Most people can do most things, if they want to.

It is a fairly simple design so definitely worth a go was a beginner.
I would recommend getting some tylose powder, just add a little to the sugar paste will make it easier for the modelling. You don't need to use it for the covering if you decide to cover with sugar paste rather than buttercream. Either one can work and is personal choice. Whichever you choose our a thin crumb coat layer of buttercream on then put in the fridge to harden. You can then add more without the cake falling apart.
Have a look at sea themed moulds, you can get some with little shells , starfish etc and they can add extra detail.