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!