Making waves for five: Emmy's mermaid cake

Emmy turned five, and she wanted to be under the sea for it.

Blending the water

The sides are three bands of buttercream stacked up the cake — pink at the bottom, purple through the middle, aqua across the top — and then worked together where they meet so there is no hard line anywhere, just water getting shallower as it goes up.

That is done while all three are still soft. Once buttercream sets you have stripes, and stripes are not what she asked for.

White sugar pearls are scattered up through it for bubbles, thicker down low and thinning out as they rise.

The shoreline

Around the base is a golden crumb sand, with white shells and a spiral conch pressed into it, and her name spelled out in front in pink fondant letters. A mermaid tail leans against the side of the cake, scaled and shaded from purple into teal so it catches the light like it is wet.

The top is the other half of the same idea: more sand banked along one edge, a scallop shell, a clam and a starfish resting in it. Looked at from above, the aqua top is just the water and the sand is the beach.

Cupcakes to match

Alongside the cake went boxes of cupcakes, chocolate and vanilla, every one piped in the same three colours in a single swirl — the pink, purple and aqua wound around each other rather than sitting in layers. Pastel pearls scattered over the top, and silver toppers spelling Emmy and 5 dotted through the trays.

What's inside

Cake was vanilla, cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla, all with vanilla buttercream frosting.

Happy 5th birthday, Emmy

Making waves for five.