Fish Decorations Part I

We have had a few birthdays lately. One was for Anna. Fish related, of course.

I had this great idea to make her an aquarium cake for her "family celebration" on her actual birthday. I read about it online after googling "Finding Nemo party" and got 10 million hits or so. It seemed pretty basic: the chocolate cake is the frame, blue jello is the water, gummy fishes are the fish, etc. Sure. I can do this. It was sort of like walking into Home Depot and convincing yourself that you can install your own toilet.

So I start this late the night before her birthday. Get my cake baked, no problem. Cake is done, I pull it out to cool. It cools and I do what I do whenever I frost a cake--I turn it over and dump it out onto a flat surface.

All right, no problem. Cake cool. Let's cut out the middle rectangle. OK, don't make the "frame" too thin, don't want this thing to fall apart hahaha.

OK I cut out the middle and even managed to remove it without messing up the "frame" part. I save the middle for folks who prefer non-Jello soaked Devil's Fudge sponge cake to eat. Great. Let's frost the frame with "Happy Birthday" and draw lots of fishes. And of course I put some pretty frosting curls all around the edges on the top and bottom of the cake. Cool.

OK, make the jello. OK, now let's pour it in the middle.
Hmmmnnn.
Wow when I pour theJello in what is going to stop it from seeping out the bottom and draining the "tank"? Well, the cake will absorb some but... surely the Jello won't set that quickly, even in the freezer? How is this supposed to work? Let's check the recipe.
Oh. It doesn't actually say to take the cake out of the pan. That was my thing.
Let's see. It's 11:30PM. No time to do another one. Can I cut the thing up, put it back in the pan, and hide my errors with frosting? Probably. Maybe. But it's too late. Just go for it.

Pour the Jello in. Manically attempt to plug the bottom edges up with buttercream frosting. Regret listening to that Johnston Flood audio tape last trip to Rochester.
More frosting! More frosting!
But it is too late. The blue keeps spreading. And spreading. Very Rorschach. What does this mean?

AAAAAAaaaaaaaaah! Stick it in the fridge and check it out tomorrow. Hope for the best.
Ah! Forgot to add fish. Dump some Nemo gummies in. Wait, I thought I had another bag. We need more than 4. What else do I have?
2-year old Hello Kitty fruit snacks! Perfect! No one is going to eat this anyway. In the glare of the blue Jello, the cats and cats' purses will be indisinguishable from the fish anyway! Dump some of those in. Put cake in the fridge. Go to bed. Hope.

Next morning: cut the blue puddle away from the outside of the frame and throw it away. Hope Anna doesn't notice her tank is very low on water. Yikes! Don't leave the cake out on the counter! The glare of the under counter lights has started to melt the Hello Kitty fruit snacks (note the ring around the top left aquarium resident). Back in the fridge! Ah!

Note to self: Thomas and Jack will never watch Nemo. Never!
Find a nice rectangular movie they like.