I recently wrote about Thea’s birthday party, and promised you a tutorial on her Ariel doll Little Mermaid cake. My mum used to make me a Flower Fairy cake every year, where the cake was made in a pudding bowl, turned upside down and made into the Flower Fairy’s skirt. I loved them so much, and knew Thea would too.
My Ariel cake, held together with jam, icing and hope!
Here she is in all her finished glory – I have to say I was very relieved she turned out as well as she did!
It was actually fairly simple to put together, but it was quite time consuming; I’d recommend baking the cake the night before it’s needed and constructing it and decorating it on the day of the party. I did it all in the morning and it was pretty stressful!
Start by making a four egg sponge cake. I made vanilla flavour but you could make chocolate too, by adding about 50g/2oz cocoa to the flour, and leaving out the vanilla extract.
Ingredients for A Little Mermaid Cake
250g/4oz soft margarine or butter
250g/4oz caster sugar
4 large eggs
300g/10oz plain flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract1. Cream together the butter/margarine and sugar until pale and fluffy. I used an electric whisk.
2. Gradually whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. I also added some pink food colouring at this point.
3. Sift in the flour and baking powder and gently fold together.
4. Pour half into a greased, lined pudding basin, and the rest evenly into two greased, lined 7 inch cake tins.
I didn’t use enough pink food colouring, so you couldn’t see it once it was cooked, next time I’ll make it much darker.
Bake at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the normal cakes are cooked, and leave the pudding bowl cake in for another 15 minutes or so, but keep an eye on it, as all ovens are different. 
The normal cakes didn’t rise as much as I’d have liked (but my oven is rubbish so I’ll put it down to that!)
Whilst the cake was baking, I wrapped Ariel’s head and legs in clingfilm to protect them from the cake and icing. I also made a little bodice out of some old material so that her top would match the skirt, which would be pink. I just stuck it on with sellotape.
You might not want to show this picture to your child: kind of disturbing, sorry!
Remove the cakes from the tins and pudding bowl and allow to cool completely. You can cut the pudding bowl cake in half horizontally to help cool it down, as you can sandwich it back together with jam.
Construct the LITTLE MERMAID CAKE
I stacked the cakes up to see if they’d be tall enough to go up to Ariel’s waist and it didn’t look good, but I realised I could trim off some of the second 7 inch cake, to make a smaller layer at the top, so I just about got away with it. 
Cut a hole in each cake just big enough for Ariel’s legs to go through. It needs to be snug or it will be all wobbly. I also trimmed the edge off this cake so it would be slightly smaller than the bottom one, and I used the trimmings to make the final top layer.
Spread jam or icing on your base plate and stack up the cakes, making sure the centre holes are aligned. Add a generous layer of jam or icing at each layer to stick it all together, (and because it will taste great too!) and put Ariel carefully into the cake.
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- Put a layer of jam on the cake stand to stick on the first layer of cake.
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- Stick on the first layer of cake with a hole in the centre for the doll’s feet.
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- Spread on some more jam and add another layer of cake, making sure the hole is aligned.
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- Keep adding more layers, until you have every layer stuck together with jam or icing.
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- Pop Ariel into the cake skirt, making sure her arms are raised up so they don’t get cake on them.
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- Stick some of the trimmings around Ariel’s waist to get to the right height.
Decorate the LITTLE MERMAID CAKE
You’ll need a LOT of butter icing. I flavoured mine with vanilla extract and added pink food colouring until I got the right sort of shade to match the little bodice I’d made. I didn’t follow a recipe for this, I just made what I thought would be enough…
Ice the cake, using a small spatula or butter knife, working from the top down – I had a feeling I wouldn’t have enough icing, so I did the front first and worked my way round to the back just in case I ran out.
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- Ice the front first…
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- … then the sides…
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- … and run out for the back!
I left the icing fairly rough, as I was going to stick decorations on it, but in an ideal world it would be lovely and smooth, and you could pipe decorations onto it! I just stuck some iced gems around the base as I thought they looked a bit like sea creatures, and then got some sparkly pink and purple sugar decorations from Sainsbury’s to press into the rest of the skirt. Take the clingfilm off Ariel’s head, add her tiara and move her arms down, and she’s done!
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- I added Iced Gems and sparkly sugar decorations before letting Ariel’s hair down from the clingfilm.
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- Pop on her tiara and put her arms down and she’s ready for the ball!
There is one snag with this cake… where do you put the candles? I used some leftover cake and we stuck on some cardboard cut outs of Sebastian and Flounder, and that did the trick. You could also cover a small potato with foil.
So what did the birthday girl think? Ava was most excited but Thea absolutely loved it too. 
I was pretty gutted to have to cut into it, but it did taste nice. Why not pin this tutorial for later?
You might also like the step by step tutorial I wrote for a classic Harriet Hedgehog cake.
A step by step tutorial showing you how to make the classic 80s chocolate Harriet hedgehog cake.
I’m linking up to:
A Moment with Franca for #KCACALS
Mrs Crafty B for #MakingHome
PinkPearBear and ThisMum’sLife for #BigPinkLink
Mummascribbles for #TwinklyTuesday
Wow – that is some cake! It looks great. Dread to think what would happen if I tried this! #KCACOLS
Author
Ha ha thank you, it did have the potential to be a disaster but luckily I pulled it off! xx
Wow! The cake looks amazing Becky! No wonder the girls loved it. Having two boys means I wouldn’t get the chance to make something like this. It’s usually superheroes or Paw Patrol!
Thanks for linking up to #KCACOLS and I hope to see you back again on 2nd April when the linky opens again x
Author
Ah thanks Maria, yeah I don’t think they would appreciate it if you gave a superhero a big pink skirt, would they? He he xx
hahah no they would definitely not be impressed although M keeps telling me his favourite colour is red which is close to pink right? lol
This is amazing. Great work. I was totally freaked out when I saw her all wrapped in cling film and then your caption made me giggle. This really is great. Gonna share on my Facebook page! #MakingHome
Author
Thanks so much Annie, it was fun to give myself a challenge – I probably would have cried if it had gone wrong though! xx
Oh wow this is fab! I am a rubbish cake maker completely awful at it I wish I could do something like this! #KCACOLS
Author
Ah thanks so much Tracey, I do love doing something a bit special for their birthdays and was so relieved it worked out well! xx
That looks great! Though poor Ariel being wrapped in cling film! #twinklytuesday
Author
He he I know, it’s like something out of a horror movie isn’t it! But at least her hair didn’t get all sticky xx
WOW!! That is amazing!! Although time consuming, I bet it was loads of fun, and must’ve been really satisfying to see the finished product! I’m not surprised your girls were over the moon, it’s every little girls dream isn’t it, to have a cake like this?! It was my littlest’s birthday at the weekend, and I’m a bit of a nervous baker (nothing much really goes to plan!) but I did make some minion themed cupcakes that I was proud of! I’d like to be able to do something of this level though, because it’s always special to make the cake for their birthday! Thanks so much for sharing with #bigpinklink!
Author
Ah thanks so much, I’m so pleased you like it! I always feel like I have to make a home made cake as mum always did for us, but I didn’t manage to Ava’s last year as it was close to Christmas and I was going a bit crazy, and she really loved the cake I bought her from a supermarket. Good luck with your cake – as long as it’s made with love I’m sure it will be a winner xx
This is so clever and a cake I wanted when I was little too! My Mum had this cook book with it in years ago. I bet the girls were thrilled. Hope they didn’t eat Ariel though 🙂 xx #bigpinklink
Author
He he no Ariel is safely tucked up in bed with Thea. But her hair is already really matted and her shoes and tiara are long gone! xx
Awesome! Ariel is my fave! #KCACOLS
Wow,what a fantastic idea and you make it look so easy!Love the little faces at the end,so chuffed 🙂 #kcacols
Author
Ah thanks so much, it wasn’t that hard, just time consuming xx
I love this it looks great! My daughter would absolutely love a cake like this for her birthday so I’m tempted to give it a go. I love the iced gems around the bottom of the cake, that was a really nice touch #KCACOLS
OMG This cake is AMAZING! God I wish I could bake! xx #KCACOLS
Author
Ah thanks so much Fi – I thought it was worth a try as even if it went wrong it would be funny! Luckily it went well this time! xx
What a fabulous cake any little girl would be delighted with. Who needs fancy moulded cake tins when a good old pudding basin will do the trick too
#MakingHome
Author
Ha ha Angela, I’m with you on that one, what would you do with a special tin the other 364 days of the year? Though I do think you can hire them at some places, which makes sense. But yep, the pudding basin worked just fine 🙂 xx
That is one awesome cake! I always wondered how they were made, stacking up the cakes is a great idea! My daughter would love this x
Author
Thanks so much Lauren, it was pretty easy, just time consuming but I really enjoyed making it, and Thea loved it so that always makes it worth the effort. xx
Wow that is some cake! Well done !#makinghome
Author
Thanks so much Maura, I loved making it xx
I’d be so happy If I’d made this, its amazing! I’m a massive Little Mermaid fan, so this would be my cake of choice.
#MakingHome
Author
Thank you so much, we are big Little Mermaid fans so even though I was a bit worried when she asked for it I was also quite excited and I’m so glad it turned out well for her xx