Bubble Guppies Cake!

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I've gone missing.  My house has been plagued with sore throats and the croupy cough!  So not much sleep has been happening!  Plus my other half has been going on lots of interviews which is great - we just hope it pans out to something!

So I wanted to share how I made the Bubble Guppies cake!  I made a chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream frosting!

Cake Ingredients (from Taste of Home Baking)
3/4 cup of butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups of milk

1. Grease your pans (this recipe calls for 3 9-in round baking pans - I made the cake twice using a square pan)
2. in large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light & fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beat in vanilla.
3. combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt & baking powder - add to creamed mixture alternately with milk.
4. transfer to pans and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry.

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
5 to 6 tablespoons of milk

1. in bowl cream sugar until light & fluffy.
2. beat in confections sugar (to me it helped to beat in the sugar slowly - maybe 1/4 cup at a time.
3. add vanilla
4. add enough milk for desired consistency
** NOTE: do not make the butter cream in a hot kitchen and work quickly otherwise the butter will separate (which started to happen to me).

I put some frosting in the middle of the cake.  The next batch of butter cream I colored blue to look like the ocean.

Bubble Guppies Topping
Fondant!
Use the Nick Jr. templates to cut out the bubble guppie shapes from the fondant.  You will need food coloring to color the bubble guppies skin and "clothes".
Don't be afraid of fondant it's much easier to use than I expected- but use confectioners sugar to prevent sticking to your hands and use water to attach the pieces to one another.

When you're done attach the bubble guppie to the top of the cake - and there you go!