This 12 year old fisherman does pretty well snagging catfish on his own, but I guaranteed the sweetest catch ever for his birthday! His dad asked me to make a catfish cake, & I jumped at the opportunity—-having grown up with our own catfish ponds on my family’s farm, creating wonderful childhood memories of my grandfather cleaning & cooking our catch right there beside the pond. So I’m VERY familiar with catfish!

I wanted him to look like he was flopping around on a dock, just after being caught. He is a large fish, over 20 inches long, & created from my Hot Chocolate cake with Chocolate Silk buttercream filling & dark chocolate ganache, & finished in fondant with gumpaste fins & whiskers. I dry-dusted him first with a blend of gray, green & brown edible dusts, & then finished by airbrushing a silver-blue sheen lightly over that. The ‘dock’ is also hand-painted fondant over the wooden base board.