Ann Reardon

Ariel Little Mermaid Cake

ariel little mermaid cake ann reardon

Being a mum of three boys I missed out on the whole Disney princess dress ups and excitement with my own kids. But I have seen the unmistakable joy on a little girls face when they see their favourite character sitting beautifully atop a cake. Big eyes, cute giggles, shy smiles and big nods when asked if they’d like to eat some.

 

To make this Ariel little mermaid cake you will need:

The cake
1 and 1/2 quantities of my fluffy sponge cake or chocolate cake recipe baked in three round 20cm (7.87 inches) tins
two quantities of buttercream coloured with blue gel colouring

The shell
200g (7.05 ounces) bluey green fondant
1 tsp tylose powder
100g (3.53 ounces) purple fondant
100g (3.53 ounces) pale blue fondant
white luster dust
One Ariel doll
ariel little mermaid cake reardon

Side decorations

40g (1.41 ounces) Pink fondant for the coral
20g (0.71 ounces) x 2 shades of green fondant for the seaweed
40g (1.41 ounces) white fondant for some coral, bubbles and shells
silver luster dust for shells (optional)
40g (1.41 ounces) yellow and orange fondant for coral

Sebastian the crab
50g (1.76 ounces) red fondant
10g (0.35 ounces) white fondant
black food grade marker
1 stick of spaghetti
ariel little mermaid cake tutorial
The pillow:
100g (3.53 ounces) Pink fondant
green fondant left over from seaweed.

The tail:
100g (3.53 ounces) Deep aqua fondant
1/2 tsp tylose powder
white luster dust
green gel food colouring

Make the fondant details ahead of time, you can make them a month before and leave them to dry out (do not put them in a sealed container or they will stay soft).

Stack the three cakes with your choice of filling between the layers (jam, buttercream, lemon curd…). Cover the whole cake in buttercream and smooth the sides and then the top. Arrange some coral and seaweed around the edge. And add Sebastian the crab to one side.

Place the shell on the top, placing it slightly forward.

Make the pillow following the directions in the video. Cut a rectangular shaped hole out of the centre of the cake being careful not to make it too big, you want it to hold the doll securely.

Add the cushion then wrap Princess Ariels legs in plastic wrap and place her into the centre of the cake. Make sure you can still see her hips and the top of her legs.

Make the tail and add it around Ariel then using a little water add the tail fins and support them. Brush the tail with diluted green gel colour. Then once that is dry brush on some luster dust to make it shimmery. Let this dry overnight. I would advise leaving the supports in place as long as possible. Keep the cake at room temperature so that the fondant tail has a chance to dry out.

Just before you are ready to serve the cake remove the supports.

Add the top half of the shell sitting it on top of the base one. Then add two cake support rods behind it to hold it in place. You can hide those with more seaweed if you like.

Take a photo with your birthday child before the party guests arrive to ensure that you get a good picture. You can post a photo of your Ariel cake for me to see in the comments below.

2015

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

101 Comments View Comments

  1. You have been such an inspiration for me!
    Can’t thank you enough for this tuitorial! The measurements that you gave for fondant objects was soooooo helpful 🙂
    Really appreciate the detailing by you!
    Made this cake for a friend’s daughter.

    • Hi Mimi, this cake look fantastic. You did a great job with all the detailed fondant work!

  2. Hi ann,
    thanks for your great recipe for sponge cake,
    but i wnted to know how many eggs do i need for half time of your perfect sponge cske, becouse it has 7 eggs and half of this is 3 and half???
    so how much is the amount of ingredients for half of your perfect fluffy sponge cake?
    i will be glad if you answer.

  3. Hi Ann, I just wanted to thank you for the inspiration to make this Ariel cake!

  4. Hi ann,
    thanks for your great recipe for sponge cake,
    but i wnted to know how many eggs do i need for half time of your perfect sponge cske, becouse it has 7 eggs and half of this is 3 and half???
    so how much is the amount of ingredients for half of your perfect fluffy sponge cake?
    i will be glad if you answer.

  5. Hi Ann. I live in Canada and haven’t heard of typos everywhere powder. Is there something else I can substitute? Thanks.

    • Hi Ann Upson, Tylose powder is a hardening agent that helps fondant harden quickly and hold it’s shape. You could allow the fondant to harden more slowly over a week but you will need to find a way to support the shape till it hardens.

  6. I love your cakes. Your creative is an inspiration for me.

    • Hi Solace313, your cake decorations loo amazing!

  7. Hi Ann, excuse the dumb question but in regards the amount of cake mixture, you mention 1 and 1/2 times your sponge recipe in 3 round tins. So is that 1.5x the ingredients split across three tins or 1.5x for each tin? Hopefully that makes sense!

    • Hi Ben, it is 1 and a half times the total ingredients spread across 3 tins.

  8. I just made this cake yesterday. Thanks for recepies 🙂

    • Great job Justyna. Your cake is so colorful and playful.

  9. Hi Ann,

    Thanks for this amazing video, I never worked with fondant before but my first attempt was not bad at all and I had so much fun.

    • That is great to hear Nadine!

  10. Hi! what brand did you use for the gel colors and what are the exact colors used? thanks

  11. Hi Ann,
    Thank you so much for this tutorial. I’ve never attempted a cake like this before. Thanks to you and your wonderful step-by-step guide, my daughter and her friends absolutely loved her birthday cake.

    • Hi Amy, for a first go you have worked brilliantly with the fondant. Well done!

  12. Hi Ann ! I just love your page and youtube channel ! My very first attempt to making my own birthday cake was using your thomas the train tutorial !!
    My little girls birthday is coming up and I want to try and make her a mermaid tail cake , but I’ve had no luck finding a video on one …
    Please help , and make one ! I know you probably get a ton of requests but it Would be awesome if u did !! Thanks so much for the time you put into your videos !!!

  13. Hi Ann. My little girl is a big fan of the Japanese anime movie Ponyo (a magical fish turns into a little girl). I am looking to adapt this recipet to turn it into Ponyo coming out of a bucket – do you have any tips on how to best model Ponyo herself or the water spurting out of her mouth? Thanks

  14. Hi Ann how long will this cake keep for?
    Thanks
    Gina

    • Hi Gina, Sponge cakes are best when fresh, though you could make the cake itself a day before it is needed.

  15. Ann please please please make a musical themed cake.. i really want to surprise my friend and he’s a singer.. i love your work and ur videos….. it’s my first ever request to you!!!

  16. Can you do a Taylor Swift cake. Please

  17. Really good website

  18. can you please make a tutorial of musical themed cake, with a guitarist sitting on it!!
    please!!!!

  19. I have a question. I get daily request s to do disney characters and character cakes who characters are protected by copyright. Can I get into trouble for making them out of fondant and displaying them and is there a way around it?

    • Hi Dee, In the case of well know character cakes, you have to check with the body holding copyright. With the Disney characters, that means checking with Disney first regarding their copyright agreement and seeking appropriate permissions.

  20. What is the italian meringue frosting recipe of the hello kitty cake.
    ti

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