Welcome to How To Cook That I'm Ann Reardon.
Today we are making a beautiful Ariel Little Mermaid cake with Ariel sitting in her shell
and Sebastian the crab down the bottom.
First thing you need to do is make some of the fondant details and you are going to need
to make them ahead of time.
To make the shell find two bowls that are the height of the torso of your doll and line
them with non-stick baking paper.
Take some bluey green fondant and knead in some tylose powder.
Now this just helps the fondant to dry out faster so once you've added it you need to
work fairly quickly with your fondant.
Cut it in half and put half in a sealed bag.
Cut the remaining piece into quarters.
Then cut one of those quarters into half.
And to make those two pieces a bit bigger cut a little bit off the next ones and add
them to those bits.
Now starting with the middle biggest piece roll it into a ball and then flatten it into
a snake that is fatter at one end.
Roll that out using a rolling pin just to flatten it out and lay it across the middle
of the bowl so that the top curve is near the edge of the bowl.
Repeat that with the other four bits with the smaller ones on the outside edges.
Now roll out some purple fondant quite thinly.
And then dampen the shell with a little water on your finger.
You don't want to drown it you just want it really thin to dampen it slight;y so the fondant
will stick together.
Add the purple fondant over the top smoothing it down so you can see where the edges are.
Use your knife to trim around the shape of the shell.
You need to make your shell at least 3 days before you need your cake so it has time to
dry out.
Because we want to stand it up the shell can't be soft it needs to be set firm.
If you are super organized you can make it month ahead and just store it.
Use the back of your knife to draw lines down the inside there.
Then use the back of a teaspoon just to give it a bit of an indent between the lines to
give it a bit of texture.
Brush a little water around the very edge and add a thin snake of pale blue all the
way around just pushing it into those curves and keeping going.
Then brush it lightly with white luster dust to give it a pearly look.
You can see here I've lined the bottom part of the shell the whole way around and rounded
it at the top there.
But for the other part of the shell I have left it longer and that is so that it will
be easier to put it on the cake when we get to that bit.
With the bottom shell take a circle cutter and cut a hole in the center of the base all
the way through and take that piece out.
Now for some coral roll some pink or you could use orange or whatever colours you want and
use a straw and cut out lots and lots of little circles.
Trim it and then place it over a rolling pin covered in baking paper and shape it how you
want it to be, there is no right or wrong here just make it a bit 3D and then leave
that to dry.
Now for the cake itself you'll need three round 20cm cakes, I am using my sponge cake
recipe, the video for that and the frosting is on the howtocookthat.net website and, I'll
link to that below.
I'm using two batches of buttercream and colouring it blue using gel food colouring.
Add a sponge to the cake board, then a layer of jam or you could use lemon curd or buttercream
here.
Another cake on top, more jam and then your third cake.
So we have quite a tall cake.
Cover the whole thing in the blue buttercream You can spread it on using a spatula or use
a large flat nozzle and pipe it around which is just a bit quicker.
Then use a large spatula or straight edged knife to smooth all around the edges and make
it look good then put it in the fridge to firm up.
To make Sebastian the crab roll a ball then use the end of a piping tip to make a circle
indent near the edge.
Then use the palm of your hand to squash it down slightly so it is a bit flatter.
Take a little ball of fondant and cut it in half.
Make a slit in each one.
And then use your knife bend over the ends to make it look like a claw.
Run your knife around the wrist part to make two lines and then repeat that with the other
one.
Roll a thin snake really thin and cut six legs.
Roll another oval of fondant then add the legs to it.
Then using the blunt side of your knife to lift them up in the centre there then gently
press to bend them over.
Put a little water on it and then add the shell on top.
Now you can just add the claws to the front by pressing them on one and then the other
one.
You can use some non-stick baking paper to lift up one claw slightly so it looks like
he is lifting it up.
For his head roll an oval of fondant and press to make an indent for each hole where his
eye is going to go.
Then use a knife to indent in the middle between the eyes there.
and then straighten up the ye sockets if you need to.
Add a ball of white into each eye socket and then make a cut just below those eyes then
pull and press down to make his mouth open and press down to make a nice hole there.
Add a thin snake just under his eyes.
Then roll a teardrop shape and make a line in the centre and add it in his mouth for
his tongue.
Add some spaghetti to the base of the head and add it onto the body.
Then add another snake around the bottom of his mouth like a bottom lip and up and around
the sides.
Trim that off then use and edible marker to draw a black dot on his eye balls.
Transfer the cake board onto your plate or cake platter whatever you are going to be
serving it on.
And then add some coral around the edge.
You can make a cut into the cake like I am doing here and poke it into the sides if you
want it standing up.
For the seaweed roll out some green, cut strips then simply twist them and add them to the
side of the cake.
It looks best if you use a couple of different shades of green instead of doing them all
exactly the same.
To make the tube coral.
roll out some orange in a strip and then add a snake of yellow down the centre.
Roll it up so the yellow is in the middle of the tube and give it a gentle roll to smooth
it out.
Cut piece from your snake and then push down in the centre so that it makes a hole and
you can see the yellow in the middle.
Then add it to the side of the cake.
Use the back of a skewer just to roughen the surface a bit then add more in different sizes
to make a nice little group.
Roll a snake of white then split the top of that in two, then split that branch into two
and split each of those again and roll the ends down a little.
dampen it with a little water and then add it to the side of the cake.
Poke it with a skewer just to roughen it up.
To make some shells just get a ball of fondant and flatten it out, squeeze it in the middle
to make it scrunched in a bit.
And then cut that in half to give you two shell shapes.
Then use your knife the make indents down from the centre out to the outer to the edge.
Shape it down and around you finger so that it is sort of going down and rounded on the
edges a bit.
Brush them both with some luster dust, I am using silver.
you can use whatever colour you like.
And then add them to the side of the cake.
For our bubbles cut a circle of white fondant then cut a smaller circle out from the middle
so you are left with like a little ring.
And then just gently push that onto the side of the cake.
Add your shell to the top, placing it not in the centre but slightly forward so you
have room to add supports for the top of the shell in the back of the cake.
If you want your buttercream to look rippled like water push down firmly on the shell and
it will give it a slight sort of rippled effect.
To make the pillow take a ball of pink fondant and shape it into a square.
Pinch each of the corners to make them a bit more pointy.
Then take a knife and run a line around the middle for the centre seam of your pillow.
Roll a super thin snake of green and then use your knife to cut equal length little
bits, squeeze them together at the top then add them to the corner of the pillow using
a little bit of water to make it stick.
Then add a little ball of green on top to finish it off.
Use the back of a spoon to indent the centre of the pillow so it looks like someone is
sitting on it.
then cut a rectangle out of the middle so that it looks like this.
And this is going to give room for our doll to go down the centre.
Cut a rectangle out of the cake, and use a fork just to scoop that extra cake out.
Then add the pillow to the top of the shell lining up the holes.
Wrap 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 because we want it to look
like she is sitting on the pillow not like she is sunken into it.
Roll a snake of fondant that is fatter at one end, it should be about the thickness
of her hips.
I'd suggest that you use tylose in this fondant too so that it sets quickly.
Cut the fatter end into two and use your thumb and finder to flatten out those ends so they
can sit nicely around Ariel you don't want them too thick or it is going to make her
look huge.
Add it around her hips and then gently bend the tail roughly putting it into place, you
should ben it around at knee level.
and then squeeze the end to flatten it.
At the back use scissors to cut off the excess fondant then smooth it down and rub it with
your finger or your thumb just to smooth it and make it all look nice.
Grab a spoon and push it down and around so it is going down where the pillow is.
Add snake of light blue around her waist a bit like a belt but making it narrower and
going down at the front.
To make the fins cut them out of fondant mixed with tylose and draw some stripes down them.
Then just use some water to attach the fins to the tail.
While it is drying you will need to support it.
I am using cups and a fork, you can use whatever you have that is the right height and you
will need to let that dry overnight.
Brush the tail with diluted green gel colouring and this is just going to give it a little
bit of that flowing sort of look to it..
And then once that is completely dry brush on some luster dust to give it a bit of shimmer.
Just before you are ready to serve the cake remove the supports.
Add the top half of the shell.
Now I just having the top bit of it here just sit on the base it should almost be balanced.
And then just add two cake support rods in behind it to hold it in place.
You can hide those with more seaweed if you want to.
And your ariel cake is ready to put a smile on the face of your little princess.
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Make it a great week and I'll see you all on Friday.
[music: youtube.com/setsailtv used with permission]