Monday, July 21, 2014

Ali's Mermaid Party

Alicia, or Ali as she's known, loves fruity cake flavors.  I had made a cake for her sister last weekend and that one was a yellow cake with raspberry preserves, so I wanted to do something new for Ali.  I scoured the Internet for recipes and came across a bunch of cherry recipes that required cake mixes and we all know I'm a scratch baker.  After combining a few recipes, I came up with this one and just hoped beyond all hope that it would turn out.  A cherry chocolate chip cake.  Sounds good, right?

Here's the batter before it was baked.  I thought it looked so pretty.  The flecks of chocolate and the flecks of cherry with a slightly pink tinted batter.    



And here's what the cake looked like baked.  Perfect!


Ali was having a mermaid party.  She's a fan of all things Ariel, the Little Mermaid, and I just happened to be in Los Angeles the weekend before her birthday.  I went to the Disney store and picked up this gem.  It's a cute little purse-like castle and when you open it up...


 ...Ariel and Prince Eric are there with Sebastian, a dingle-hopper, a tub and a screen.  How cute is this?!!!  It would make the perfect cake topper.


Ali's invitation had the view of teal water and a mermaid tail.  I wanted to incorporate these into the cake decoration.  And here's what I came up with.  



The top tier of the cake is a chocolate cake with buttercream filling.  The bottom tier is the cherry chocolate chip cake with a maraschino cherry frosting.  I topped the top tier with some brown sugar (for sand) and placed her toy on top of that.  The outside of the cake is frosted with my vanilla bean not-too-sweet buttercream and I used some fondant accents to make some shells, a star fish and an Ariel.



 Ali couldn't take her eyes off the cake.  I just love it!


And her mom just happened to have a sparkly #4 candle that matched the design beautifully!


Ali got to play with her toy while we cut the cake.  This made my heart just melt.  She was so excited to see Ariel and Prince Eric inside!


And here's what the cake looked like on the inside.  Moist, chocolately and very much full of cherries!  YUMMY!!!



Happy Birthday, Ali!  I loved being a part of your special day!

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