Hey everyone! I need some suggestions on making a bass cake. I just don't know where to begin! I've searched the galleries for inspiration but the majority of fish cakes are covered in fondant and the cake is for my husbands 30th birthday and he doesn't like fondant. I thought about doing a sculpted cake but I'm concerned about getting crumbs in my buttercream and I would like the fish to look as realistic as possible. I also thought about making the fins out of gumpaste. Any suggestions would help alot. Also, he wants his cake to be carrot, is this too moist for a sculpted cake? Is there a pan I could buy for this? Sorry for so many questions I hope you all can help .

Anyone have some suggestions?

check this thread....
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-175781-.html

look at her pics from the class....

then PM her and ask for help (and maybe for her to post tutorial) on how she made her fish cake.

and....

if you search the galleries...several cakes there you could PM the creators of.

(dangles prepositions like any good son of the midwest!)

I have 2 in my gallery made from buttercream with fondant gills and fins. I think carrot cake would work. Do you have an airbrush?? This would really help with realism.

Unfortuneatly I don't have an airbrush. Do you think that those sprays by Wilton would work? Jenn, your work is beautiful would you mind PMing me the instructions?

I've never used the Wilton sprays. I'm not sure what to tell you on instructions... I stack sheet cake layers and trim freehand to the right shape. Pre-ice the cake. Get some good photgraphs of real fish to go by!! I made the gills and fins from fondant. I let them harden overnight. Then I iced the cake, inserted the fondant pieces, and airbrushed the whole thing. I used a plastic screen to hint at scales. I made a lure with a candy mold. Sorry this isn't real specific but I just shoot from the hip for this sort of thing.

With sculpted cakes like this how do you keep the crumbs out of your buttercream? Do you do a crumb coat? I have read about doing a crumb coat but I have never done it so I'm a little nervous! I do have a picture of a real bass to help me with the colors and body markings.

Yes, pre-ice or crumb coat...it's the same. Just slop the icing on very thin and don't worry about the crumbs that get mixed in on this layer. It will look bad but will protect the real icing job later. If you are going to airbrush or use Wilton sprays don't ice the cake while it is cold. The condensation will kill you. You can crumbcoat cold and poke a few holes in it. Let it dry completely before icing.

I was jsut getting ready to post a thread for this when I saw it on the home page!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP! i HAVE A CAKE DUE THURSDAY AND HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO DO IT. She wants buttercream w/ fondant accents. I bought the Wilton sprays and was told those should work. The cake is Chocolate. HOW DO I ASSEMBLE THIS????? should I just carve it?? Any help would be wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I will just practice with a few cakes...I have two in my freezer waiting to be carved. We'll see how it turns out. Also, the lady wants "worms" inside the belly. Should I just make a pocket and fill it in with worms? I am torting with chocolate pudding.

Ewwww! Maybe you could make a pocket out of fondant and fill with piping gel and gummy worms! I would be afraid to do a carved cake with filling. I never offer this because it slips around too easily. The chocolate pudding wiil be hard to keep out of the icing too!

I've never had a problem with torting pudding-I just ice a dam around so it doesn't ooze out Also, she doesn't want any fondant on the cake (with the exception of the fins). Someone gave me the idea to use caramel pieces for the worms-as they are brown and I can mld them to fit.

Oh, have you filled a carved cake before? Are you going to carve and then fill?

Caramel is a great idea if they don't smash flat with some weight on them.

Well, it's filled-just not carved yet.... I didn't think about the flattening factor...grrr, we'll just have to see how it turns out. I have three days to get it right-and with two little ones home with me all day-well...it should be an interesting experience.

How can you know where to put the dam if you filled before carving?

Well, I did it in the location where I plan to carve-the size I want-one is with and one is without. It may turn out to be a total disaster-we'll see...

I really wish i could help with this, but mine is all fondant
but if you want to make scales easily, once the buttercream is crusted a bit (i've been told) you can use a lemon or onion bag.

Good luck!! I hope it works well!

Hey can anyone tell me what size cake they carved their fish from and how many layers did you use? Also, how do you get that rounded look the fish's belly when carving?

You could start with an egg or football pan and add a little where needed for the tail and head. How many are you serving?

I have one in my pictures that I carved and frosted in buttercream, hand painted, and added gum paste fins. If you want instructions let me know. I added texture by using a straw that I cut half off and made the scales with.

I have one in my photos also. I used a two layer 1/4 sheet for the fish. It's all covered in b/c and handpainted with luster dust and lemon extract. The fins and tail are fondant and also painted with the luster dust.
To round out the fish, I just eyeballed it until it no longer had the squared edges. Use a good sharpe serated knife. Good luck. It's time consuming but you'll like the results.

Last week I made one in Brownen Weber class (see my photos)

We started off with a one layer 1/4 or smaller. Choose you size. She said you can add filling to this if you want, use a stable filling.

left side of cake we cut off the two corners then trimmed the edge for the cake for the stomach and tail area. Now we trim from the top down at an angle for the tail. Take some of the cake you trimmed and on top of stomach to make it bigger. Then trim face for a better angle. Frost with a layer of frosting then cover in fondant, and added the shaped with our fingers. You can airbrush or use luster dust to get the color you want.

Someone posted my link allready but here it is so you can see the fish before it was colored. Look at pages 4 and 5 for the fish( http://community.webshots.com/user/leanao go to brownen class). For the lips we used a finger and pushed it into the cake.


here is a close of Brownen's



here is my fish before airbrushing


my completed fish

froggy and Gale what did you use to shape your fish, a pan or did you carve it? I want it to be really life-like and completely blow my hubby away! He often scoffs at my interest in decorating so I really want to impress him with my talents! He actually told me I should just go to costco and get him an undecorated carrot cake. I think he realized this hurt my feelings so he quickly said he would like me to make him a fish! Speaking of carrot cake if anyone has any really good recipes I would love to hear them! I want this to be the best cake I've ever done so all your help is really appreciated!

Mine is carved. I found a picture I liked in Google and blew it up to the size that I wanted and then cut it out. Used that as a template to get the basic shape. Then finished shaping it. Did the crumb coat with a thinned down buttercream. It pulls less crumbs when thinned down. Then I frosted with the two colors of green and yellow. Smoothed and then painted with the colors thinned in Vodka. After it dried I used a straw that I snipped at an angle and used that to make the scales.
My fish was carved from an 8" round and then put on the sheet cake.

what do you thin your BC with, I have heard of people thinning theirs down with corn syrup but I haven't tried it. I found a picture on the internet of one that I like and I blew it up as large as I could get it, I'm not sure if it would be enough servings for 12 or more people though. I don't know, this cake is making me crazy!!! I think it is because I have such high hopes for it!

I just thinned mine down with milk. I can take a quick trip to Kinko's and enlarge my pictures.