The Fish Cake

Whenever I get a project, I usually give it a nickname so that when I’m working on it, I can remember which cake I’m getting things for or baking for, need which pans for etc. Some times it’s something elaborate, but most of the time it’s pretty straight forward. This was simply… the fish cake.
A while back, at least a year ago, but probably more like two, I saw this fish cake pan somewhere at a yard sale or a thrift store or something for like a dollar. I knew I had to have it.

It sat in my cabinet forever, but I knew one day, it would get it’s chance to be filled with batter and baked to perfect fish perfect.
So when my old friend Katie from high school contacted me asking if I’d ever done a fish cake, I sprung at the chance to say, “Nope, but I have JUST the pan!”

I made the fish strawberry as sort of a gross gesture to fish guts. I mean, it was a little boy’s birthday cake. They’re into that kind of thing… anyhow, I made a 1/4 sheet cake and dressed it up all boggy with crushed oreos, a pool of blue frosting, gummy worms and buttercream grass…

I iced the fish and then proceeded to cover it in scales… one scale at a time. I used an icing tip as a cutter and cut out what felt like a million little circles and laid them one at a time.
One they were all laid, I added the other details and hand painted the entire thing with some diluted food coloring gels.

It was so great to get to see my friend again when she came to pick up the cake. We got to catch up on things for a while before she headed out, delicious cake in hand.

Seems it was a big hit. I mean, what kid doesn’t like cake covered in oreos and candy?

I guess you cut the heads off of fish before serving.

By the time I was finished looking at photos of fish and painting this thing, I’d decided fish were hideous aquatic troll creatures. I would probably still have taken a bite of this one though.