Buttercream Mermaid Cake

A mermaid cake is every little girl's dream cake. This tall buttercream cake with mermaid tails and fondant accessories will steal your heart. With my step-by-step and video tutorial, you can make this for your little princess too.

Table of Content

• About this cake
• Step by step instructions
• You may also like
• Printable Recipe

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This year, I made this mermaid cake for Rhea's birthday. She loves swimming very much and we always say she swims like a mermaid. So, of course, she is fascinated with mermaids.

I also made this a double barrel cake, as you can see. These are two cakes stacked as one. This time, I decided to do a buttercream finish instead of covering the cake in fondant.

I thought it would make a lovely tutorial, so I hope you find it useful. The video is detailed. So, feel free to skip parts that you find not relevant for your project.

About this cake

It is a simple and easy cake, but it does need some preparation and time management.

• Cake - I have given you an oiled-based vanilla cake recipe below, which is light and airy. And yet, you can also use any of my other layer cake recipes.
• Frosting - It's summer, so I am using my velvet American buttercream. But, any other buttercream would work just as well. See my list of 30 plus buttercream recipes here.
• The timeline for preparing this cake
  • Fondant accessories - needs 8 hrs drying time - prep time - 1 hr
  • Bake the cakes - 2 hours
  • Cool the cake - min 4 hours, preferably overnight
  • Prepare buttercream & simple syrup - 30 mins
  • Level, torte, fill and dowel cake - 30 to 45 mins
  • Frost cake - 45 mins
  • Assemble cake - 45 mins

Step by step instructions

Cake

• Preheat the oven at 170 C / 340 F.
• Grease and line with parchment paper 4 x 7-inch round cake pans (or 3 x 8-inch round baking pans).
• Combine the buttermilk and sour cream - use a whisk to ensure no lumps - set aside.
• Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt - set aside.
• Whip the whole eggs in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.
• Then, gradually add the sugar while continuing to whip on medium-high speed.
• Once all the sugar is in, whip on high speed until ribbon stage (see video).
• Next, gradually add the oil, while whipping continuously. You want the oil to emulsify so add it slowly or the oil will separate during baking).
• Next, add the flour mixture along with the buttermilk in three or four batches.
• Scrape the bowl to ensure you have no dry flour on the bottom.

• You can divide this batter between the four baking pans - I divided the batter into 4 bowls and colored each in shades of pink (my daughter's request was pink inside) before I create a tie-dye kinda effect.
• I used cake strips to ensure I had flat cakes with no domes.
• Bake on the middle rack for 40 to 45 minutes. Rotate the pans between baking time (after 25 mins) top to bottom and front to back.
• Bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes clean.
• Once baked, cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes then invert from the baking pans and cool completely.
• When cooled, wrap each cake in plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours (chilling make it easier to handle such delicate cakes).

Frosting

• Prepare simple syrup to moisten the cake layers.
• Prepare your choice of buttercream using my recipe and video linked above. I'm using my velvet American buttercream in the video.
• Use 3 cups buttercream for filling the layers.
• The rest can be colored - I used turquoise, purple, fuchsia, and pink.
• Place the colored buttercream in piping bags without tips.

Frost the cake

• Cut the domes from the cake layers with a bread knife.
• Moisten each layer with simple syrup using a pastry brush.
• Stack one layer on the cake board.
• Pipe a generous amount of buttercream frosting.
• Place another layer on top.
• Next, we need to dowel before we add more layers.
• Insert one dowel in the cake - mark the height.
• Remove the dowel and using it as a guide cut the other three dowels.
• Now insert all four dowels, as shown in the video.

• Add a dollop of butter on each dowel.
• Then, place the 6-inch cake circle on top.
• Spread a generous dollop of buttercream on top of the cake circle (this will prevent the cake from moving).
• And, place the next layer of cake followed by more buttercream and then the final layer of cake.
• Optional - I wanted the top of the cake to look slightly narrower than the bottom. So, I use a 6-inch cake board as a guide to carve out the top crown. If you watch the video it will make sense.
• Next, pipe the colored buttercreams all around the cake starting with the turquoise at the bottom, followed by the purple, fuchsia, and pink.
• Use a straight-edged spatula to spread the buttercream evenly as well as to marble some of the colors so they blend into each other.
• Next, use the tip of a spatula to create lines all around the cake (see video).
• Finally, add more buttercream on top and smooth the top. Smooth it with an offset spatula.
• Place the cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

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Mermaid tails, shells, seaweed, seashells

• Add 1 tsp of CMC to 450 grams of fondant.
• Divide the fondant into smaller portions and use food gel colors to make different shades that will match the cake.
• As shown in the video tutorial, create three mermaid tails free-hand or you can also use a mermaid tail silicone mold.
• I used a seashell mold to make the seashells and corals.
• Cut strips of fondant in greens for the grass and seaweed.
• Place everything on a parchment-lined baking tray and let dry completely - 8 hours.

Assemble

• Start by adding the corals and grass around the cake.
• Then, add the seashells and rest of the fondant accessories you created.
• You may or may not need everything you created, so don't feel pressured to add it all.
• Stand back and look at the cake - see what looks good and where you can add. Since this is a buttercream cake place things correctly, so you don't have to move them around.
• Finally, add three skewers on top of the cake and place the mermaid tails on it.
• Add all the edible sand ingredients in a bowl - combine well.
• Spoon edible sand all around the cake and at the base of the mermaid tails.
• Don't forget to put a ribbon around the cake board.

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Printable Recipe

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