It was our niece’s 11th birthday, and we were taking her to swim with the stingrays at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. And you can’t have a birthday without cake, so I made an “under the sea” birthday cake.

It was a simple vanilla layer cake, but I went to town with the decorating.

I coloured the buttercream icing 3 shades of blue. The base of the cake is decorated with graham crumb “sand” and chocolate candy shells.

I wanted a stingray topper, but I couldn’t find any stingray toys, so I used a manta ray instead. Close enough!