Easy Star Tip Cake Decorating Idea – Ocean Theme

My love for baking continues!

In my childhood, I never cared what my final product looked like. As long as it tasted good, that was enough for me. Now, looking back, I am horrified by some of the creations I sent out! I am sure no one cared, but now that I have taken a liking to the art of decorating, I cannot help but want my products to look as good as they taste.

That being said, sometimes I don’t want to do a crazy decorating technique. This is where today’s cake decorating idea comes into play.

Ocean themed cake using four different shades of blue, and keeping it simple by using Tip 21 (a star tip.)

This star pattern is the first technique you learn when it comes to cake decorating. Heck, you probably remember entire character cakes such as teddy bears or Scooby-Doo decorated entirely with tiny stars. This cake decorating idea is a bit “dated” now, but sometimes you can still come up with a really cool idea, all while remaining basic and easy.

This being said, the amount of time it took to decorate this cake was excruciating! I lined up my four shades in piping bags and literally picked a bag, placed a star, placed the bag back down, and repeated the task with the next bag…

FOREVER!

However, this ensured my colours blended accordingly and left with with a cake that reminded me of the ocean.

I used my basic chocolate cake recipe, with a standard vanilla buttercream recipe. Both recipes can be found by clicking on those links. Please note, this cake is only a 6-inch round cake but with 3 layers. I halved my original chocolate cake recipe and there was still enough for 3 layers (though they were a tad thin.) As for the buttercream, one batch was suffice.

Now, for the colouring. I decided to divide the icing into 4 containers. I used Wilton’s Royal Blue and added a small amount of blue to the first container, and then slowly increased the amount each time. Two of my shades of blue were quite similar but it still worked out. I was concerned at first because my batch with the tiniest amount of royal blue ended up looking sea foam green. But I thought the ocean varied in colour so it was appropriate.

Be prepared for lots of repetition and by the end of it, the hatred of stars! But the pattern looks so pretty! I got the idea from Mirror Mirror with her multi-coloured star tip cake. I loved it the moment I saw it and this is my inspiration for today’s cake. I know the cake may seem “boring” and too easy, but trust me, the end results are beautiful and this cake lets you practice your piping skills (try keep all those stars even!)

Sorry for the tin-foil cake tray. Dan was taking the cake to work with him so I didn’t want to risk destroying the cake my transferring it multiple times!