Octonaut cake

After months of seeing great Octonaut cakes on Pinterest I'd had plenty of inspiration.

I wanted to make a Gup A cake on a sea base.

I'd already managed to make some coral, seaweed and fishes from fondant icing mixed with a bit of gum paste.

I made two Madeira cakes and started to carve into the right shape. Once I was happy with it I covered it in buttercream icing and then rolled out some royal icing. Gosh that bit was soo hard. Several times I ripped as I was just about to drape over the cake.
The worst bit was the weight of the icing on the carved cake meant that effectively 'the chin' dropped off. I had planned to go to bed once the Gup A had been iced as it was already 11.30pm but when it fell apart I just couldn't leave it.
Improvising I cut up the other cake into a moon shape and decided to place the Gup A at an angle, as if coming up out of the water (which also supported the droopy chin).
Once I'd iced the base and stuck on the 'bits' I started to feel so much happier.

The next day was just left for finishing touches, fins, glitter, putting the sterilized Octonaut toys on.

In the end I was happy and most importantly so was Tilly but it was a far cry from what I had in my mind I may be able to achieve. I think next year I need to hire someone else to make the cake.