Cakes of Interest: Dolphin Sheet Cake

When you work at bakery with limited resources, it can feel like you’re on an episode of Nailed It! Getting requests for Pinterest-type cake designs when you only have fifteen to twenty minutes to complete it can make you feel like….

I have pride in our work, but I’d be lying if I said every commission came out perfect. When I got the order ticket to replicate this dolphin sheet cake on Pinterest, I wondered what masochistic customer service representative approved this, because my manager certainly didn’t! In fact, we both gave it the side-eye!

Just for context, my bakery typically has representatives that take cake orders for us. We don’t typically know what the day has in store for us until the day the cake is due. Fortunately, we have some flexibility in that customers are informed beforehand that the decorators will match the cake as close as possible, but that we cannot guarantee a mirror image copy.

Considering I only had twenty minutes, an airbrush, and some spatulas, I think I did alright! I started off airbrushing the top of the cake with the darkest blues and greens, being sure to keep the left corner solid while the blue ends in gradation throughout the rest of the cake. I filled in the lighter portions on the upper right corner and bottom with canary yellow. I made sure that the gradient transitioned smoothly between yellow and blue before proceeding with piping the dolphin.

I piped the dolphin first because it is the focus of the cake; you can easily fill in props after the main focus has been sculpted, but it is difficult to do the props first just in case you don’t leave yourself enough room for the primary decorations (at least, that is how I see it). I decorated the rest of the cake with coral, seaweed, urchins, the angel fish, and air bubbles. A clean shell border was added at the very end.

The cake looks super shiny since I sprayed a generous layer of DecoPac Pearl Shimmer Premium Airbrush Color. To top it off, I added a dusting of Bakery Crafts Star White Edible Glitter. When in doubt, add pearl and glitter to everything. Something about us humans; we like things that sparkle!

The cake was a hit! Despite my griping over the lack appropriate decorating supplies, I do have a weakness for ocean themed cakes since I grew up sailing boats. With summer rolling around, I look forward to seeing bottlenose dolphins on the Chesapeake Bay. More summer cakes on the way!

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