Inspired by a mermaid cake she'd seen, Jocelyn Schauer of Charlottesville, Virginia, crafted this Hula Dancer cake for her daughter Annaliese's fourth birthday. It perfectly completed the party's Hawaiian theme, which also included Hula Dancer invites drawn by Annaliese, favors of grass skirts for the girls and straw hats for the boys, and flower leis for everyone to wear while dancing to Hawaiian music.
What you'll need
- 8-inch square cake
- 9- inch round cake
- 9- by 13-inch cake (Note: you should be able to make all 3 of these cakes from 2 boxes of cake mix)
- Food coloring
- 2 to 3 16-ounce tubs of white frosting
- Fruit leather (blue, green, and red)
- 2 brown and 8 green Necco wafers
- Black string licorice
- Jordan almonds
- Flower-shaped candies
- Tinfoil-covered cardboard (2 by 3 feet) for a cakeboard
How to make it
Cut the cakes as shown. Arrange them on the cakeboard, brushing away any crumbs.
Stir food coloring into the frosting to create a skin tone (we used yellow and red to make peach). Then frost the cakes.
Decorate the cake using:
• Strips of blue and red fruit leather for hair
• Brown Necco wafers and black string licorice snips for eyes and eyelashes
• Red fruit leather cut into lip shapes for a mouth and rolled into flowerets for corsages
• Strips of green fruit leather for a grass skirt
• Green Necco wafers for a bikini top
• Flower-shaped candies and Jordan almonds for a colorful lei and a flower in her hair
