Let Them Eat Cake! #4 - Pink-tastic Undersea Birthday Cake for Little Miss

I'd been asking little miss for months what she wanted for her birthday cake this year. As you would expect from any 2-year-old, the request kept changing nearly every time I asked her. The only thing that remained constant was PINK! No matter the design, it always had to be PINK!

"Baby girl, what flavor do you want your cake to be?"
"PINK!"
"Ok, what do you want it to look like?"
"Pink! Wiff pink dec-nuh-nations!"

Alrighty... No matter the theme, we need an epically pink-tastic creation.

So I set to work, coming up with ideas. She loves animals, but we did a woodland theme last year. She requested a unicorn cake at one point, and hubs said "a SEA UNICORN!" One of her nicknames is "Nori" and he loves calling her "Nori-norwhal". She loves the sea and everything in it, so I thought I'd take that and run with it. I asked if she wanted an undersea cake and she replied "a Nori-norwhal underwater cake with pink water." That was enough inspiration to get me started, and thankfully she was rather pleased with the result.

I started with a pink cake recipe. In this case, I went with an old fashioned cherry chip cake, which uses maraschino cherries, diced up, as well as some of the juice for flavor and color.

I creamed the wet ingredients together, sifted the dry ingredients, and then mixed the dry ingredients in alternating with the milk/cherry juice.

I also added a touch of pink food coloring, to be sure the cake was pink enough for miss thing. 😜

I poured the batter evenly between three 8" round pans, spread, and gave them a tap, then popped them into the oven to bake.

I like to freeze my cakes before decorating them. I've found it makes my life easier, allowing me to bake them ahead of time, so I'm not in such a time crunch. It also makes for easier frosting, as the icing sticks nicely, and doesn't pull crumbs off. AND I start stacking and decorating while the layers are still partially frozen, which locks in the moisture, keeping a moist and tender cake. If you haven't tried freezing your cake layers, I highly recommend giving it a try! 😊

I had a few ideas of how I was going to decorate the cake, but I don't keep fondant on hand, preferring to decorate with buttercream piping. I knew I wasn't going to get the results I wanted from buttercream alone, so I decided to order a couple of silicone molds to help me out. I dusted the molds with pink, silver, and gold pearl lustre dust, and poured in melted pink and white candy melts, set them in the freezer for a few minutes to set up, and then popped them out onto some parchment paper, and continued to make a few batches, until I had this nice little pile.

(You may notice a unicorn/narwhal horn in there. I decided against using it, after seeing the size discrepancy between it and the tails. Because of this we told her she could decide whether they were narwhals or mermaids. lol)

While those were setting, I worked on whipping up a nice big batch of american buttercream. I reserved a bowlful of the white, and then tinted the rest of it... you guessed it: PINK! I used the pink frosting between the layers, as I stacked them, and all around the cake. Then I did a wave-like swirl around the sides, before starting on the piping.

I piped some swirly pink "waves" around the top and bottom borders, using an open star tip, then some white "kelp" using a leaf tip, and some "bubbles" with a small round tip, all around the sides.

I added a white "crest" on the waves on the top, and tinted a bit of the pink frosting with extra pink food color, to make a darker tint, and used that to pipe the "Happy Birthday" on top. Then it was time to go to town with all those candy shells and tails. And, of course, it needed a few of those beautiful gumball pearls that I also used in the Seashell Macarons. A little "splash" around the tails, and some edible glitter around the top, and voilà!

That is one sparkly, PINK-TASTIC cake!

And it was definitely pink enough to satisfy even the Princess of Pink.

Here's a look at the inside: fluffy, moist, and of course, pink! And what better to accompany a slice of pink cake than a hot pink plate?! LOL 😂

What's your favorite cake flavor?

Have you ever tried a cherry chip cake?

What's the best/craziest birthday theme request you/your kids/someone you know has ever had?

I think I'll be remembering this one for many years to come.