Beach Birthday Cake

Happy birthday to Isla! My friend Meghan babysits for Isla and her old brother Townes (you may remember that I made him a super hero cake back in March). Isla turned 1 last week and her parents requested a beach/Hawaiian-themed cake. I was happy to oblige! Here are the details about how I made her cake and cupcakes.

• The cake was a 10-inch square chocolate cake; made with two layers. I used my enhanced box-cake mix recipe that can be found here.
• The cake was frosted using White Buttercream Icing. Half of the batch was dyed blue.
• Half of the cake was frosted with white frosting and then covered with crushed Teddy Graham cookies (use a food processor to get a finely ground mixture) to resemble sand. The other half was frosted with blue icing out of a Wilton grass tip (#233). Using the grass tip in a slightly different way leads to the appearance of waves and water.
• I surrounded the cake with chocolate “stones” (purchased at Vanilla Bean).
• The beach scene was created using a plastic palm tree, paper drink umbrellas, Teddy Grahams, Fruit Roll-Ups (for the beach towels), and Gummy Lifesavers.
• The “Happy Birthday Isla” letters were cut out of pink fondant using alphabet fondant cutters.
• The blue ocean life cupcakes were frosted using a 1M tip & blue icing. I placed a pressed sugar animal on each.
• The flower cupcakes were frosted with a large leaf trip & green icing. I placed a pressed sugar flower on each.
• The beach ball cupcakes were created by cutting the design out of fondant — you’ll need red, yellow, blue, and white. I cut them out by hand, so I don’t have a template to offer.

Let me know if you have any other questions! Here are some more photos.