I made this fish cake for my oldest daughters birthday a few months back. She choose this cake because she said it reminded her of her pet goldfish she used to have. The gold fish she won at her school carnival when she was four years old. She was so excited to have won it and the whole way to the store to get supplies we talked about names. However all of the names dad and I came up did not sound good to her. She choose to name her fish after her favorite pre-school teacher, Miss Shanon.
This goldfish lived for about 2 1/2 years. Which I guess is pretty good considering all the other fish won at the carnival lasted only a few weeks at most. Not sure how we ended up with such a long lasting fish. However the goldfish did not survive the move we made from Michigan to Illinois three years back.
Every once in awhile my daughter will ask about getting another one or make some comment about her goldfish. My youngest has even asked when will she get her own fish like her sister did. The answer from dad and I is always the same....NEVER. We are just not fish people. But a fish cake I can handle!
For the cake part of this fish cake I choose to make a homemade version of a funfetti cake. It was a such a colorful cake and super easy to make. I tried to find sprinkles without brown in them, but for some reason every bottle of sprinkles (not nonpareils) had brown in them. Oh well, I guess it is not the end of the world to have a little brown in the cake, just not what I wanted.
Homemade Funfetti Cake
Ingredients:
Cake
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 egg
1/2 cup Greek vanilla yogurt
1 1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup sprinkles (not nonpareils)
Vanilla Buttercream
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Assembly
blue icing color
toothpicks
4- 6 inch wooden skewers
pull and peel Twizzlers
2 white chocotae chips
round candies (like m&m's, skittles, or spree)
Directions:
Cake
Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease and flour 2 9-inch round cake pans well. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
In a large microwave safe bowl melt the butter. Whisk in both sugars getting all the lumps out (mixture will be gritty). Whisk in the eggs, yogurt, milk and vanilla until well combined. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients just until no lumps remain. Add in sprinkles and carefully fold in to minimize the color bleeding (batter will be thick).
Divide batter between the two prepared pans and bake for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with foil (you do not want the top of cake to stick to the foil) so the top does not brown too much before the cake finishes cooking. Bake for an additional 15- 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for a few minutes then remove from pans and cool completely on a cooling rack.
Vanilla Buttercream
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 3 minutes. While mixer is running add in cream, vanilla extract and slowly add in powdered sugar. Increase mixer speed to high and beat for 3 minutes. If frosting is too thin add in more powdered sugar. If frosting is too thick add in more cream.
Assembly
Figure out what you want to serve the cake on, a platter, foil lined hard cutting board or foil lined cardboard.
Tint buttercream desired blue color.
Cut a crescent moon shape off each cake layer (see picture to the right). Set aside the crescent moon shapes for the tail and fins. In order for both body pieces to come out the same, cut the crescent shape out of one cake layer and then use it as a template to cut the other cake layer.Take the body pieces and spread a very thin layer of frosting on the large flat side of one of them and place the other on top. Secure the two pieces together with several toothpicks. Carefully spread some frosting on the cut side of the body and place the frosted cut side on prepared serving board or platter. Crumb coat the entire body piece with a thin layer of frosting. Refrigerate to let frosting set up a little. Frost the body with the final coat of frosting.
Tint remaining frosting a darker shade of blue.
Take one of the crescent moon shapes and frost the outer edge of it (the uncut side). Place the frosted side on the back side of fish body and secure with two wooden skewers. Crumb coat the tail fin.
Cut remaining crescent moon shape into three pieces (see picture above). Set aside the middle piece (you will not use it). Take one of the remaining pieces and frost the cut side. Place frosted cut side on top of fish for the top fin and secure with two wooden skewers. Crumb coat top fin.
Cut remaining fin piece in half horizontally. Use frosting to attach fins to the body of the fish, trying to line with top fin. Crumb coat the side fins.
Frost all of the fins with a final coat of frosting.
Place the round candies on all sides of the fish starting at the back and working towards the front. Stop at the front edges of the top and side fins. Place a white chocolate chip, point side into cake, on either side the fish head for the eyes. Pull apart Twizzlers and cut as needed to form the fish lips.
Enjoy!!!
Notes:
Instead of Greek vanilla yogurt you can use plain Greek yogurt, plain or vanilla regular yogurt or sour cream. Any of them will work just fine so use what you like or have on hand.
If you do not want to make this cake into a fish, just assemble and frost like a traditional layer cake.
If you want to make a single layer cake cut the cake recipe in half and bake in one 9 inch round cake pan.
Spree candies work the best for decorating the fish because they are bigger. I used m&m's becasue that is what I had on hand and I did not go as far forward because I ran out of m&m's.
*Funfetti cake adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction.
*Do not remember where the idea for the fish cake came from. I have had it in my recipe binder for many years.
