Under Water Themed Fondant Cake

Yay! Another fondant cake for me :) I have to recognize all the people who contributed to this cake:

My mom and my aunt - thanks for baking such delicious Spekoek for the cake
My bff, Nana, and my fiance, Alvin - thanks for your labor in coloring the fondant
My dad, my mom, my aunt, Nana, and Alvin - thanks for triggering my creative vibe :)

Alvin's nephew was turning one (yes, his first birthday!) and I was given the honor of making the birthday cake. :) The request from the mom was really simple. She wanted Spekoek for the cake and she wanted an under-water themed cake. I had never made spekoek before and the number of egg yolk used in making that cake is really scary for me (about 20+ egg yolks!!). Thankfully, my mom was visiting from Indonesia for the week and she is a PRO at baking spekoek. My aunt, who was visiting from New Mexico (to see my mom), was her right had assistant in the process. :p

The timeline for the cake is really interesting:

Friday - Mom and Aunt made the Spekoek; I made the fish (Daddy fish, Mommy fish, and Baby fish)

Saturday evening - I made the rest of the decorations; Alvin and Nana helped color the blue fondant

Saturday night - Mom, Aunt, and I rolled the blue fondant to cover the cake (thanks mom for your patience with me); Nana and I arranged the decorations on the cake

Super late Saturday night - Nana and I colored the remaining blue fondant to a darker shade and tried very hard to make the "happy birthday Ethan" letters and then arranged them on the cake

It's really a lot of fun making the cake with a lot of people, but it can also be very frustrating (for me, at least). It's really worth the frustration, though :p The cake turned out to be really cute and exactly what I had imagined it to be! I am 100% satisfied.

Below are some close up pictures of the figurines :) I think Baby fish is just adorable!

Here's Daddy fish, surrounded by anemones and starfish.

The birthday celebration was at church and the little kids loved the cake. :) This makes my heart even happier. I told everyone that my mom made the cake and they really enjoyed it. What can I say - my mom taught me how to bake. :)

When I took a picture of the cake at church, the color of the cake looked a lot brighter than it was at home. I guess lighting played a great role in how the cake turned out. I shall bear that in mind in the future. :)

If you're wondering why some of the pearls at the bottom of the cake came loose - well, it's damage due to travel. The cake was moved around quite a bit at church and I guess all the commotion caused the cake to "break a sweat." :p Nonetheless, I am very happy with how the cake turned out.

Hmm... I wonder what my next fondant cake would be?