Would Appreciate Ideas On How To Make A Nudibranch Cake!
Decorating By frankdiabetes Updated 1 Feb 2010 , 6:55pm by _Jamie_
I was wanting to make a cake for my sister-in-law's birthday and she loves nudibranchs. Does anyone have any ideas on how to best reproduce the picture below in cake? I would so much appreciate any feedback on this...am sort of new at this and haven't a clue where to begin. Thanks!
Hummm, I've never heard of nudibranch but it's very cute! The only sugestion that I would have is to stack cake and start carving and then for the top part use fondant. Sorry, that's all I got for now. It normally takes me awhile to figure out how I'm going to make some. Maybe someone with more experiance can help you out. good luck
Well, I Googled nudibranch, and they are fascinating and beautiful! They come in such vibrant colors! Is your SIL a marine biologist?
I'm no big cake expert, or marine biologist, but here's my idea:
This would be for a flat nudibranch, not one standing up like yours, I can't figure out how to do that. Make a loaf cake and carve it rounded like a log. Cover it with fondant mixed with a bit of tylose, but not all the way to the bottom, leave it loose. Create the ruffles by molding it with your fingers and supporting them with something rounded, like small bowls, or how about half of plastic Easter Eggs! How silly does this sound! LOL! Then just use your gel color or luster dust to paint the purple edge. Add the top antennae, or whatever they are, by inserting toothpicks into fondant sausages, shaping and coloring them and sticking them into the cake. You could also air brush the colors.
Whaddya think?
Oooh, thanks everyone for the ideas!
She works as a naturalist on a whale-watching boat in Sitka, Alaska and loves all marine related creatures. But I especially liked the nudibranch because it looks like he's smiling!
I'll give some stuff a try and will post a photo if I come up with anything worthwhile.
Oh! This is EASY!!! Pretend you are making a football helmet cake. Find instructions for that...it's practically the same shape, then you just have to carve the details and make GP rhinophores and cerata.
Here are Google images of nudibranchs. Print some out from all angles, have them in front of you when you begin carving. Have several sizes of knives, and work with very chilled cake.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&resnum=0&q=nudibranchs&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
Here is nudibranch anatomy: http://images.google.com/images?q=nudibranch%20anatomy&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
Thanks Jamie! I think I'll have to try some of your ideas...I knew that if I figured out the general sort of anatomy construction, it would be pretty easy to add the details. Nudibranchs are all different anyway! And he is super cute, I think most squishy sort of creatures are gross, but he seems quite charming 
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ok, not sure how to go about this is cake, I think Jaime and the others gave you good pointers and starting points.
Just wanted to say, those things are soooooooooo cool looking....God and His imagination when creating everything never ceases to amaze me!!
When I read the title I read nudi and then branch (with an emphasis on the nudi) and I thought it was some new kind of bachelor cake...lol
But seriously that thing is cute!
Oh my...what spectacular ceatures they are!!! I've never heard even heard of them...can't WAIT to see them in "cake" form!
When I read the title I read nudi and then branch (with an emphasis on the nudi) and I thought it was some new kind of bachelor cake...lol
But seriously that thing is cute!
I know, with my love of squids and octos, you'd think I would have a clue on what a nudibranch is! 
Instead what did I think? "Is that what they call the branch Adam covered himself with?" 
Oh my goodness is that a cute fishy, I don't usually like sea creatures, lol, but he is adorable. I like the ideas Jamie gave for making a full 3-D. Another idea is to do a tiered cake and make Royal icing/Color Flow transfers, with so many pictures available I think you could make some beautifully colorful transfers. I envision the fish and coral and the tall flowy seaweed Best of luck, I can't wait to see!
You all are so funny, I was concentrating on the nudi too, I was thinking of something they would use at meeting in a nudist colony, you know like the Conch Shell, when you hold the nudibranch, it's your turn to talk 
I was thinking of something they would use at meeting in a nudist colony, you know like the Conch Shell, when you hold the nudibranch, it's your turn to talk
Hahaha, that is hilarious! I can honestly say, that is the last thing I would have thought of but it's a really great idea!!
You know, you could easily make a chocolate transfer of them from some of the pix I found online. That would be very cute!! 
No I haven't made him yet! After doing some planning for the nudibranch cake, my SIL's fiancé thought the better idea would be to make a turtle cake for her birthday, since they had just gotten a new turtle. But I'm still filing away the idea and will definitely make him in the future! Perhaps next year.
But this has made me think, I'm doing the cake for free...I should be the one to decide what to make! Plus, if I make a cake for someone's birthday, they're not getting any additional gifts from me. Call me cheap, but it's not actually free for me to make cakes; it's not like I have infinite free time and cake supplies on hand. Grr, just a little post-script venting.
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