Kathleen's 8th Birthday Cake

This is one of the first cakes I ever made to order. Kathleen’s 8th birthday party had an ocean theme, so I did a buttercream design of an octopus (get it??). The cake was a simple chocolate since almost every kid likes that, with vanilla buttercream I tinted blue. I put two sheet cakes side by side on the board. The best (and most fun) part was hunting down all the candy to make the rest of the design. I used chocolate molds to make little shells and starfish, crunch topping for the “sand,” chocolate rocks, apple flavored green licorice to make “seaweed,” and gummy fish. I really enjoy making things out of chocolate so I used a sheet of waxed paper over printed lettering to pipe her name. As a final touch, I made a little number 8 flag out of cardstock paper and a coffee stirrer and stuck that in to make it look like the octopus was holding it. From what I understand, she announced at the party that no one else could eat her name and all of the kids wanted a piece with “sand” on it. :)