Bubble Guppies

Sometimes it's great to be able to repeat a cake. Then you get to do all the things right a second time around (hopefully) and better your effort before. A mummy who found me online gave me that opportunity when she asked if I would do a Bubble Guppies cake for her little girl.

Mummy M contacted me almost 3 months in advance about the cake (thank you!), we waited patiently for this day to come. She wanted a 2-tier chocolate cake featuring her little girl's favourite Bubble Guppies friends. Ever since I got to know these adorable underwater characters, I am hooked to their cuteness. If you recall, it was Lauren's cake back in November last year that probably caught Mummy M's eye. For that cake, I only had the bandwidth to make Mr Grouper, so this time round I was eager to create the lot!

The cast of characters

While I was making these cuties, my trusty iPhone camera failed me :( Frustratingly, it just wouldn't focus on near objects so I was unable to document the fondant crafting in closer detail. But as you can see in the above pic, I made the Bubble Guppies, Mr Grouper, little fishes, starfish, seashells, sea sponges and billowing kelp, all ready to decorate the cake with.

In the process of researching this cake, I came across a few fine examples online. I even found on Etsy.com that you can purchase ready-to-use Bubble Guppies fondant toppers - check it out here. Some of these crafters are charging USD175 for a set of these characters in 3D. Talk about enterprising!

But I decided to make these with gum paste in 2D. They adhere better to the cake and work much better in our weather (yes I've learnt all my baking lessons in 100% humidity). The easy ones to make in 3D are the seaweed pieces (I twisted these into a twirl for maximum effect) and the starfish and seashells. They may not be the main characters but they are totally essential in setting the scene.

Mummy M also asked if I could make the cake a bit more girly since it was obviously going to be a predominantly blue cake, so I had Prudence's name in pink outline and dusted it with edible pink sparkles - when in need of some girly glam, just add sparkles - does the trick every time ; )

What I love most about the cake has got to be the bottom-of-the-sea look. I crushed some digestive biscuit and sprinkled it all around the cake base to make it look like the sea bed. Digestives rock!

Put the biscuit crumbs in a cup for easy sprinkling

Seabed Biscuit

And here's the completed cake... I'm very happy with it and so were the recipients, yay ; )

Mr Grouper leads the pack

Happy Birthday Prudence