Today I’m going to show you how to make a fun & simple pull-apart fish cupcake cake design! This cute and colorful cake is the PERFECT centerpiece for summertime or beach themed parties. All that you need are cupcakes and one small round cake layer!
Let me show you how to make this sweet fish cake:
First, I started with one fat 6″ layer (about 2″ thick) and 12 cupcakes. My 6″ cake layer is on it’s own cardboard cake circle, and I split it into two parts (with one side being a little larger than the other).
I nestled each row of cupcakes into the row next to it, so that the spaces in between the cupcakes could be kept to a minimum.
Here’s the rough idea of Miss Fish. The part of the 6″ cake that will become the tail is a little larger than the other half (which will be the face).
Both parts of my 6″ cake are on a cake circle cut down to size. This makes moving them around easier (especially later after they’ve been frosted).
Using a serrated knife, I cut a little notch from the “tail end” of the cake to give it a better shape. Doing this exposed a little bit of my cardboard cake circle, which I then snipped away with scissors.
Time to frost our fish head and tail! First, the tail. I frosted it with a crusting buttercream (tinted Lemon Yellow) and then used my small tapered spatula to make ridges.
After frosting, I moved the small cake to the refrigerator to chill and firm up (so that moving it to the final board won’t be as difficult later.)
*You can use any vanilla buttercream that you’d like. We used our Classic Vanilla Buttercream recipe but our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream recipe would be a great choice also!
Next, I frosted the fishy head with the same yellow vanilla buttercream. I waited a few minutes for the frosting to crust, and then smoothed over it with a Viva brand paper towel.
(This is known as the Viva Paper Towel method of smoothing. Simply let your frosting crust, and then smooth over using a Viva brand paper towel or any brand of paper towel or napkin that has minimal impressions or quilting.)
Of course, this is an optional step–you can frost and smooth however you’d like! The hot knife method is another great option which involves chilling the frosted cake until firm and then using a hot spatula to iron out any imperfections.
After chilling the head of the fish, I moved it to my final cake board and began filling in with the colorful cupcake body. My cupcakes are swirled with buttercream (tinted Americolor Electric Green and Deep Pink) using a 2D large closed star tip.
For these basic swirls, simply do a basic outline the cupcake and then end in the center, pulling the piping tip up and to the side.
To secure the head to the cake board, I spread the bottom of the cake cardboard that the head is resting on with a little buttercream. For the cupcakes, I added a small dot of buttercream to the bottom of the cupcakes that make up the outer edge of the fish, to secure them to the board.
Another option is to frost the entire “fish cupcake body” all as one large cake. This is the typical approach to a cupcake cake. I think that piping the cupcakes individually makes for a really fun and unique look though!
Next, I removed the fishy tail from the fridge, spread a bit of buttercream on the bottom of the cake cardboard that the tail is sitting on, and “glued” it to my board right next to the cupcake body.
In the photo, you can see that I’m gently pushing the cake tail close to the cupcake body–I’m using my paper towel to prevent fingerprints!
Now it’s time to bring our fish to life! First, I made some funny fish lips from fondant (I kneaded in a little tylose to firm it up more quickly).
I wanted to keep these funny fish lips lightweight, but thick enough in the middle for me to insert a lollipop stick anchor. It dried for about an hour and was ready to go…but to be on the safe side, go ahead and make it a day or two in advance.
If you want to skip the fondant, just pipe on some buttercream lips with a Wilton tip 12 or other medium to large size piping tip.
My fish cake is going to be a bit glamorous with nice, long eyelashes! I made more than I needed just in case there were any breakage issues.
You can see below that I cut a strip of black fondant (with a little tylose powder kneaded into it for a faster dry time) and fringed it with a knife to create the eyelashes. I dried them over a bubble tea straw, but any number of rounded forms would work.
After about an hour, the eyelashes held their shape nicely…(but again, dry times can vary depending on the humidity in your kitchen, etc. It’s always best to allow 1-2 days or at least several hours for gum paste pieces to dry!) —
Next, I gave our fish a big blue eye using a circle of white fondant and a blue food coloring pen. I also gave it a little sparkle with some white disco dust ;0)
Now, we’re ready to put everything together! I pushed in the anchor for the lips (and gave them a little sparkle of white disco dust). Then, I placed on her eye and pushed in the curled eyelashes!
I added a few final touches to tie everything together. Using a 2D tip, I added waves of blue buttercream, and I also added fish fins on top and bottom as well as a little fondant fin.
The air bubbles are piped in buttercream with a Wilton tip 12 (medium round tip). The birthday sign is made from white cardstock and simply wrapped around a lollipop (cookie) stick.
Ta da! So much cuteness! This sweet fish cupcake cake is swimming to a party near you!
Thanks for stopping by the blog today! If you’d like to see some more fun and beachy ideas for cupcakes, visit our blog post on how to make a school of lollipop fish cupcake toppers or our crabby cupcakes! You can find them HERE. See you next time!
**Our full collection of our favorite cake and frosting recipes can be round in our Recipes Section! Also, there are so many more fun free tutorials in our Free Tutorials Section! Make sure to hop over and check them out! Thanks for stopping by!
That is amazing and so simple, my daughter will love this. Thank you for sharing it :)
This is soooo cute… I love the design. You are such a talent!!! I will definitely be making this!
This is gorgeous, I love it…thank you!
fantastic
Too cute!!
Awesome…thanks for sharing!!!!
I love it! My daughters pre-k class just started a chapter on ocean & beaches to finish up the school year….this is perfect…..I’m making this! Thanks so much!
perfect as always!!! YUM! Love the colors you chose as well.
Very very nice!
Really Cute cake, and a great idea. Thank You for sharing this.
I love it. Thank you :)
It so cute u guys hav lovely ideas
So pretty and easy. Amazing
It’s beautifull. Congratulation!!!
Very beautiful, nice way to wake up…. Thank you for sharing. Yummmmmm.
So cute! I cant wait to try this when we take our beach vacation in July!
This is adorable!!
I love the creativity … combining cupcakes and a cake!
Adorable – I have a few people who love to fish and can see myself making this!
this is so beatiful, thank.
I love this idea; you have so much talent!!!!
How cute is this!?! Love the lips:)
Another great idea!
Melissa, you’ve done it again! This is too cute for words. –Kathy
Your site is amazing!!!
Kisses from Brazil!!!
Dani
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful talent, I made this cute little fish for my daughters 2nd birthday. It was easy and cute.
FAB !!! and you make it look so easy and the outcome over the top.
Do you have a favourite crumb coating (buttercream) recipe that you could share? again thanks for the lesson, cant wait to make fish of my own =)
Wonderful Tutorial! Love the Fish!
So cuuuuuuute!
Thank your for this wonderful tutorial. I can appreciate the individually iced cupcakes instead of the entire lot of cuppies at once. It has a totally different look. The finished product is awesome!
AMAZING work!!! You are so talented… thanks for sharing.
I made this & the crab cupcakes last night, and my buttercream kept sticking to the viva paper towel….I tried letting it sit longer…..I also tried putting it in the fridge, and then doing it…..nothing helped. What did I do wrong? I live in GA so it’s warm here & I did use the all butter recipe. Should I use a different recipe next time Thanks! :)
Hi Cherish, your cake needs to be at room temperature for your buttercream to crust properly. When it isn’t at room temp it will take forever to crust. Could this have been the problem? It typically should take only a short time to crust, maybe 10 min. depending on your humidity.
This is the first cake I have made since joining this wonderful site. The cake/cupcakes came out GREAT-because the instructions are GREAT! My big problem was that I need to measure..my cake board was toooo small…made a last minute change..not perfect-but my co-worker will love this cake for her birthday…thanks
Hi Rosemarie–Hooray! Yes, nothing like those last minute changes of plan with board, etc …but so glad to hear that it came out great!
This is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!! I have a cake to make for my step-granddaughter for her birthday…THIS will be the one! She is going to be thrilled.
Thank you for sharing it !
Love this! Made it for my nephew’s first birthday! Thank you so much :-)
siete bravissimi
I want to use this idea for my son’s birthday. Do you think it would look as good if I used larger round and increased the number of cupcakes for the body? I will have about 40 people. I was thinking about using a 9″ round. Thoughts?
Hi Erika–That sounds like a good plan to me! ;0) Let us know how it goes. I’m happy you’re making it!
wow! so going to try this!!
Hi! This is super cute! In order to make a 6 inch round, what are you using for a recipe?? Im not sure how much batter it takes for a 6 inch. Equivalent to the twelve cupcakes? Thank u!
Thanks for sharing. I will make it for my granddaughters. They are going to love it!
I just made these and I found this to be super easy! I pinned this under my kid friendly ideas but I am making this tonight for a friend of mine as she loves the ocean so I figured this would be perfect! Thanks for this awesome and easy idea!
very cute & unique …..
What did you put the fish on? What is the blue background made of? Can you double this fish to make it bigger?
Hi Lilli, we used two or three cardboard cake boards taped together and covered with a blue plastic tablecloth ( we found ours at Party City). You could also use foam core or plywood cut to the size you need. The plastic tablecloth was cut and pulled tight to eliminate wrinkles and taped or stapled onto the cakeboard ( to staple is faster ) If you staple, just make sure the staples are all the way in so they won’t scratch a tabletop. For a bigger fish you could use an 8 inch layer instead of the 6 inch and enough cupcakes to make the fish body in proportion to the head and tail.
Brilliant can’t wait to make one for the grandkids when they come for tea it’s bright an novel love it thanks for sharing
We were so excited to see this cake idea for my 2 year old’s birthday party since we were having her party at our local beach! The tutorial was easy to follow and I added “bubbles” to my fish and made the mouth out of a cardboard heart shape and iced the mouth with pink icing. Check it out here on my blog: link to asliceofsmithlife.com
Thank you!
Would you be willing to share your frosting recipe!?
Hi, I love this cake and have a request to make it this weekend. What did you use to make the board blue?
This is adorable. I am featuring this in a party roundup if you don’t mind.