70gmsMelted White Chocolatedepends upon design of choice
Instructions
Prep Work
Follow the condensed milk cake recipe for detailed instructions to make the cake batter. Divide into 4 - "6 inch" cake pans and bake as mentioned.
To make the sugar syrup heat the sugar and water until the sugar dissolves completely. Transfer to a bowl to cool completely and then use on the cooled cake base.
Take a cake layer that has been cooled down completely and soak it well with the now cooled sugar syrup.
Add a layer of condensed milk buttercream on top and smooth it well followed by 1/3 of the prepared strawberry filling.
Stack the second layer of cake. Crumb coat the sides of the cake with little buttercream and then repeat all the above layers until you reach the very top.
Crumb coat the entire cake and allow it to sit in the fridge for a minimum of 30 mins.
Colouring the Buttercream
I am using teal and turquoise colours by ChefMaster to colour the buttercream.
To get the ombre colour, start by colouring the buttercream in the darkest shade that you prefer.
Transfer a portion of this to another bowl and add more plain buttercream to create a little lighter shade than the previous shade. You can do this as many times as you want and each time you will end with a lighter shade than the previous one.
How do you make Icing look like the Sea?
Smoothen the top: Since we are giving a rustic finish to the cake we have to start with smoothening the top of the cake first. Use the lightest shade possible, add some frosting on top, spread and even it out. Spend some time here as we won't touch it once you are satisfied with the finish.
Ombre effect: Create an ombre shading effect on the sides of the cake with the darkest shade at the bottom and the lightest to the top.
Go up and down while smoothening the cake: Using a bench scraper smoothen the sides of the cake. Do not worry if it is uneven because that is exactly what we want. To give the wave pattern remember to do an up and down wavy motion using the bench scraper instead of just going horizontally across the surface as this will give it the oceanic wave pattern.
Buttercream Transfer Technique
Depending upon the height of your cake take a printout of the desired character. We are obviously using a Mermaid pattern today. Stick it onto a baking tray so that it does not move. Stick parchment paper on top of the printout.
Use a muffin tray to make the different colours of choice as per your design requirement.
You will start building your colours on this parchment paper starting with the details first and then proceeding to flood the colours. In this case, we will first do the eyes, ears, lips and the bow on her head. Chill the baking tray for 5 mins. Then flood the parchment paper with other colours that are her body, hair and skin which would cover the image entirely.
Do not worry if it feels uneven to you, this is the portion that is going to stick onto the sides of the cake and hence would remain invisible.
Release the parchment paper and immediately stick it on the chilled cake. Gently press the parchment paper onto the side of the cake so that the design sticks properly and gets transferred.
Put the cake back into the refrigerator for 15 to 30 mins .After 15 20 mins, gently remove the parchment paper to reveal the design on the sides. If any air bubbles, adjust it with the same colour.
Chocolate Decorations
Transfer the melted chocolate to fill the cavities in the silicon moulds of choice as per your designs.
Allow it to set completely before demoulding.
To Assemble
I made some free-hand seaweeds next to the mermaid design for which fill a piping bag with green buttercream and make a small slit. Draw a line and make small leaves on it. (You can also choose to use the silicon moulds of sea weed design too if you prefer)
For the other side, using a petal tip I drew a green strand on parchment paper and kept it in the freezer until the buttercream was frozen. Once frozen, I simply took it and stuck it to the cake.
For the base, grind some golden oreo biscuits which resemble the white sand like the ones you see on a beach. I added those to the base of the cake.
The mermaid chocolate designs were then placed on the cake where they went with the decor.
When you bake the cake in advance, everything is already cooled down to room temperature. This will save time when you are decorating your cake. Also, consider making the sugar syrup, strawberry filling, chocolate decorations and ground oreo biscuits in advance too.
Instead of using Eggless Condensed milk cake, I would recommend using my Eggless Hot Milk Cake which makes an excellent base for layered cakes.
Skip the strawberry filling if you are in a rush to finish it all. You can also consider using fresh strawberries instead of compote if you prefer.
Crumb coat as you go for this cake recipe. Since you are making a tall buttercream cake, crumb coating at each cake base layer would ensure that you are stacking the cake straight on top of the other.
Use gel food colouring for the best colouring effects. For colouring, your chocolates prefer using powder colours.
You can use this same wavy cake base pattern to do baby shark theme cake, sailor theme cake, under-the-sea theme cake etc by simply changing the decorations on top.
While tracing the buttercream designs on top of the printouts, make sure that the previous color has chilled down before proceeding further with other colors so as to make sure that the colours do not smudge.
Do not bother if your design looks messy because this layer will be stuck to the cake and hence is practically invisible. Only take care to fill the designs without any air bubbles.
This technique can be used to make any character of choice like the dinosaur, peppa pig, spider man etc.
Cover the cake board with fondant of blue colour or simply some vinyl stickers of the theme to make the cake pop.
If all of this seems overwhelming then consider checking our shortcut tips mentioned in the post above to help you reduce the amount of work you need to do.