I made a cake with a beach scene for a friend’s daughter’s 6th birthday party using a full sheet cake pan. I made a chocolate cake with buttercream icing, half tinted with aqua food coloring. This was also in June, probably my most busiest cake month!
I used crushed graham crackers for the sand, pirolines for the palm tree trunks, teddy grahams (piped w/ bathing suits on), pretzels for the pier, lifesavers, and paper drink umbrellas for the beach umbrella. The palm leaves and various sea creatures were made out of royal icing. I also used royal icing as “glue” for the pretzel pier and this worked out much better than using chocolate as I had done with the pretzel fence for the farm cake. I also made some cool surfboards using royal icing (the night before), but somehow it didn’t set fast enough so I couldn’t use them the next morning. I was planning on putting a teddy or two on the surfboards on top of huge waves…bummer…
The birthday girl loved it nonetheless and even helped decorate her cake by placing the sea creatures where she wanted them to be.
Clea Said:
on July 3, 2009 at 7:29 pm
We absolutley loved this cake. DD is trying to make something similar for her 4-H cake. Do you have any suggestions for her to get the graham crackersto stick to the sides? Any help would be very appreciated.
Thank you.
Clea
frazi Said:
on July 6, 2009 at 4:56 am
Hello,
I’m not sure what you mean by graham crackers sticking to the sides…
Do you mean after they are crushed to look like sand? If so, then press the graham cracker crumbs onto the sides of the cake soon after it is frosted, before the frosting “hardens”. The frosting is a good glue to get the graham cracker crumbs to stick to it.
If, however, you are referring to using graham crackers for the pier, you can use melted chocolate or cookie icing to glue them together. To support them, you can you pretzel sticks or pocky sticks underneath.
Hope this helps!
Frazi
Michele Said:
on July 20, 2009 at 3:14 am
Trying to make palm trees with royal icing for my twins beach cake. How did you form the leaves? Did you pipe them with a tip over something to give them shape? And did you pipe each one individually and then attach them together with r.i.? and lastly did you pipe the teddy grahams with royal icing too? Thank you!!!!
frazi Said:
on July 21, 2009 at 3:54 am
Hi Michele,
Yeah! I hope your twins like the cake!
For the palm trees, I used royal icing with the “leaf” piping tip (I forget the tip number). I piped the palm leaves side by side on a strip of wax paper and then place the wax paper on top of a curved surface, like a pvc pipe or boom whackers (kids toy). I would use a large diameter pipe to form the curves, if you use a smaller diameter pipe, then pipe thinner leaves so they balance better on your piroline sticks. I place the longer leaves on the pirolines first and use the shorter leaves for the top because it balances better, i.e., the leaves won’t fall off. I use regular frosting to hold the leaves onto the pirolines because royal icing takes too long to “set”. Then again, you can use a thicker version of the royal icing (like that used for gingerbread houses) so it “sets” faster.
Hope this helps! Please send a link to your beach cake! I’d love to see it!
Frazi
frazi Said:
on July 21, 2009 at 3:55 am
Hi Michele,
Yes, for the teddy grahams, I piped them with royal icing as well, using a small open tip, like #2.
Frazi
Michele Said:
on August 18, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Hi there. I finished the cake and it was a huge hit. Thank you soooo much for all your guidance. I’d love to share a few pictures with you. Send me your email and I’ll send them. Thanks again – Michele Montana
frazi Said:
on September 2, 2009 at 4:48 am
Yeah! That’s great! Looking forward to seeing the pix!
emily Said:
on June 13, 2010 at 7:03 pm
I luv ur cake, I want to make one similar to that for my birthday! Which is better for the sand -graham cracker(crushed) or brown sugar. I luv this so much
Emily
frazi Said:
on July 16, 2010 at 5:43 am
Hi Emily,
So sorry for the late reply! I just started a new job and have been busy to the gills!
I think either brown sugar or crushed graham crackers will work well for the sand. I prefer to use the graham crackers because it is not as sweet as pure sugar.
Hope that helps!
Frazi
Emily Said:
on June 13, 2010 at 7:04 pm
So cool :Q LALALALALA
frazi Said:
on July 16, 2010 at 5:44 am
Thanks! I’m so happy you like it! Please send a pix for the cake you make on your birthday. I’d love to see it!
Frazi
Paden Said:
on July 7, 2010 at 2:15 am
I used your idea for my daughter’s first birthday cake today and It WAS AWESOME!!! Thanks!!! Mine was a little different but I would like to show you.
frazi Said:
on July 16, 2010 at 5:45 am
Hi Paden,
I’m glad you tried it! Yes, please send me a pix of how it turned out. I’d love to see it!
Frazi
Michele Said:
on September 5, 2010 at 12:48 am
Making this cake ! Ready to frost it tomorrow…. will let you know how it turns out- my kiddo will be 9 and thanks for posting this cake, she found it on her own…..online….so thanks.
frazi Said:
on October 7, 2010 at 3:53 am
Yes, please let me know!
frazi
Jen Said:
on September 16, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Love it!
I am going to be making a cake very similar to this for my son’s 2nd birthday next month. (Just with some different “decorations” on the beach”
I’m curious as to what size sheet pan you used. You had plenty of room for decoration on yours, I don’t want to end up having to cram things on.
Thanks!
frazi Said:
on October 7, 2010 at 4:09 am
Hi Jen,
I don’t really remember, but I did put in the blog a full sheet, so I must have used a 18×14 pan. Another thing I do sometimes is bake two 9×13 pans and just put them side by side. You can’t tell w/ the frosting!
Hope this helps and let me know how it turns out!
frazi
Beach Cake | Cooking Crusade Said:
on February 6, 2011 at 11:34 am
[...] beachy, so I set upon google to do some research. One of the cakes that I like the most was from this blog here. It looked pretty simple but effective, so I decided to go along with something similar. I still [...]
frazi Said:
on March 14, 2011 at 7:31 am
Hi!
Thanks for the link to my blog! Thanks also for linking to your finished cake. I think it looks great and I hope you had a lot of fun!
Frazi
L Said:
on March 18, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Hi! I love your cake design. I have a beach themed party coming up and would love to make a cake like this. Except for the creatures I have most the “ingredients”. How did you make the warf? i have pretzels but wasn’t sure how to “stick” them together in the same manner you did. Any suggestions? Thanks.
frazi Said:
on March 27, 2011 at 3:24 am
Hi L,
For the wharf, I glued the pretzel sticks together using royal icing. I had tried using chocolate before but that didn’t glue it as strongly as the royal icing. Use a thicker royal icing so it’s easier to stick the pretzels together.
Good luck and have fun! Hope it all works out and send me pix if you can…would love to see it!
Frazi
not2crumby Said:
on July 18, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Love it! It turned out Super Cute…I think I am going to use your idea for the dock, I would have never thought about using pretzel sticks!! I’m going to try this one.
Traci Said:
on August 21, 2011 at 7:55 pm
I’m having my daughter’s 2nd birthday party Saturday! I am doing this cake and I’m so excited!!
I attempted a few royal icing things about a month ago but they didn’t turn out and they broke too. I am just going to use some plastic sea creatures. Will buttercream frosting be ok to use as a glue for the pier and also the teddy grahams suits? Thanks! LOVE your cake!!
frazi Said:
on September 22, 2011 at 6:49 am
Hi Traci,
So sorry! I’m so behind on my blog and haven’t checked until recently.
I hope your cake turned out beautifully…I’m sure it did. For future reference, white chocolate is probably better than milk chocolate. Milk chocolate melts easily whereas white does not. If your royal icing is not holding up, use less water in your royal icing to make it less watery. Piping it will be tougher, but it will dry faster and hold the pretzels in place better. I think adding cream of tarter can also help (I remember reading that somewhere, to make icing for gingerbread houses), but I can’t remember where I saw that. You can try googling it.
As for the clothes on the bears, regular frosting should work, but it can smudge more easily since it doesn’t really harden. So long as you don’t handle the bears too much after piping their clothes on, it should be okay.
Hope that helps and again, so sorry for the delay! Please send a pix of your cake if you can. Would love to see it!
Frazi
Ashlei Said:
on November 22, 2011 at 9:33 am
how did you make the sea creatures? did you use royal icing, or fondant?
frazi Said:
on November 22, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Hi Ashlei,
I used royal icing. Lately, though, I’ve been using softened tootsie rolls and starbursts to make small things. I think do what you feel most comfortable with.
Good luck and send me a pix as I’d love to see it!
Frazi
Annie Said:
on February 29, 2012 at 9:04 am
Thanks so much for this!
I used it for my school assignment in Food tech and I got great marks
emily Said:
on May 15, 2012 at 3:54 pm
i love this cake
Tracy Said:
on July 8, 2012 at 5:06 am
adorable cake! a customer spotted it so I am recreating it! I love the teddy beach goers!!
Joli Round-Up : Gâteaux sur le thème de la plage ! | La Crafterie Said:
on February 11, 2013 at 9:01 am
[...] Frazi’s Cake [...]
tag79 Said:
on April 22, 2013 at 8:48 pm
I fell in love with this cake and I’m attempting to make a similar cake for my son’s birthday. I was wondering if I can do anything in advance. Did you make this cake the day of the party? Can I make it and keep it in the fridge or freezer? I’m guessing that it won’t survive a hot day outside…
Thanks