Coolest Mermaid Cake 58

by Beth M.
(Pembroke, MA)

Mariana the Mermaid Cake

My three year old daughter was over the moon with the character Mariana the Mermaid from the DVD "Dora Saves the Mermaids". I had to get pretty creative to come up with a Mariana themed birthday party, since there was next to nothing on the market. The one asset I had was a Mariana doll that I'd purchased as her birthday gift. Armed with that, and a few photos of princess cakes from this very web site, I went to work.

I baked two different cakes for this, because I needed to feed 30 people. The bottom tier was a 14.5 inch, two layer chocolate and vanilla cake, and the top tier was a chocolate/vanilla marble cake baked in a batter bowl. I was afraid the weight of the top tier would be too much for the bottom tier, so I used a 9 inch cardboard circle in between tiers, with dowels stuck down into the bottom tier for extra support. I took the Mariana doll and pushed her, feet first, into the center of the top tier up to her waist.

The rest, as they say, is frosting! Oh, and a few white chocolate seashells my daughter and I made together from store bought molds.

All totaled, I used 9 boxes of cake mix and gobs and gobs of homemade buttercream frosting tinted with Wilton food colors.

If I never bake another cake in my life, I will go down in our family's history books as the baker of the cake that stole the show. And the best part was that it tasted delicious too!