A Whale Cake You Can Bake!

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A little boy sitting at a table with a whale birthday cake with an 8 calendar.

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See this guy? He’s my resident scientist/archeologist. He loves all things having to do with biology as well as historical artifacts. He devours nonfiction books like some read comic books.

So it was no surprise that he asked for another whale shaped birthday cake last month. Last year he also had a whale cake. And the year before he had a Beach Birthday Cake. I’m thinking I may have an oceanographer or marine biologist on my hands. Glad we live by the beach.

One of his stipulations was that he get a whale cake that was different than last year’s. So after putting our heads together, this is what we came up with.

A whale birthday cake with an 8 candle on a table.

Ready to make a Whale Birthday Cake?

You can totally do this! You will need:

  • a cake mix, prepared according to package directions
  • a batch of Homemade Buttercream Frosting
  • blue, green and black paste food coloring
  • a large oval or rectangle pan
  • a small loaf pan
  • white and green can or tube frosting or extra buttercream and a pastry bag with tip
  • candy pebbles
  • blue construction paper waves and a dolphin, taped on toothpicks (FishBoy8’s touch)
  • chocolate chips
  • tall sparkler candles
  • a number candle

(Forget the fondant, it just wanted to be in the picture.)

ingredients for a whale cake.

Bake your cakes according to package directions. If you are using odd shaped pans like I did, check every so often for doneness. Cut the small loaf pan to resemble a whale, as shown below. Divide your buttercream into two bowls and tint part of it Grey and the other part Ocean Blue.

Bowls of frosting next to cakes ready to be frosted like a whale.

Frost the larger cake with the Ocean Blue. Rough up the frosting a bit to resemble waves.
Cake frosted with buttercream.

Frost the whale grey and place it atop the ocean. Place candy pebbles here and there. Use white can frosting to make white caps on the waves. Use the green can frosting to make seaweed. Insert construction paper shapes. Place the chocolate chips for eyes. Spoon a small amount of grey frosting into a small plastic bag. Cut off the tip of the bag and pipe eyelids on the chocolate chips. Tint the remaining grey frosting a darker shade of grey. Use this to pipe on a blow hole and a mouth.

A whale birthday cake on a table.

Make sure you let the kids help to place all these embellishments. And taste a few candy pebbles. ‘Cuz you’re a Yes-MOM.

Decorating a whale birthday cake with candy rocks.

Insert number candle on ocean and place sparkler candles as the water spout. Enjoy the Birthday Kid’s smile.

A little boy sitting at a table with a whale birthday cake with an 8 calendar.

For more cake decorating inspiration, buy my ebook Pretty.Cool.Cakes: A Baker’s Dozen of Creative Birthday Cake Ideas.

Check out Tasty Tuesday for other good eating ideas.

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9 Comments

  1. too cute! my son is the same way about science/ nonfiction/ ocean life and I was hoping to find an ocean cake that was a step up from last year’s blue frosting and tacky fish shapes. he will be 8 too, and this cake is perfect, thanks!

  2. Now that you’ve converted to homemade frosting I am urging you to consider a homemade cake. It takes much better than the box. Here’s a super easy yellow cake that I have made many times. The recipe is from http://www.allrecipes.com

    Grandma’s Moist Cake

    1 c. butter
    2 c. sugar
    4 eggs
    2 1/2 c. self-rising flour
    1 c. milk
    1 T vanilla

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 8″ cake pans. (I make this in 2 cake pans with no problems and use parchment paper instead of flour.)

    Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Combine the milk and vanilla, add alternately to the creamed mixture with the flour, ending with the flour. Mix only as much as necessary. Pour into the prepared pans.

    Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cake will pull away from the sides of the pan slightly when done. Allow cakes to cool in the pans for a few minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

  3. Perfect!!! My son said he wants a whale cake for his bday(which is in a month) and I have been looking for something like this!! Thanks a lot!!

  4. That was a cute idea! Off topic question… can you recommend some books that your son enjoyed? I have an avid reader who will be 8 next month and it’s hard for me to find books that I think are appropriate…. age level, non-fiction takes a while to sort through at the library. He’s already read all the book about famous American’s when they were kids.