Sea Beach Theme Vegan Chocolate Cake

When I came across the Diorama contest, first thing that came into my mind was the sea beach theme.

Who doesn't love the beaches!! Here is a simple representation of the same. With sugar paste fondant work and a lit bit of baking you can create this lovely Beach sea diorama.

It was a good experience working on this theme with a beautiful blue sea and the beach sands and the mermaid tail fishes and some cute little sea shells.

The different contents here are:

Vegan chocolate cake

Whipped vanilla frosting and chocolate ganache

Sea Beach fondant work

My nephew is allergic to eggs so I have made an eggless and vegan version of the chocolate cake. I must say the texture is real moist.

Edible sugar paste art for the marine things are part of this instructables. So lets get started!

Chocolate Cake (Vegan): 8 inch baling pan

200 grams ( 1.5 cup ) All purpose Flour

28 grams ( 1/4 cup ) Cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp Baking Soda

200 grams ( 1 cup) Granulated Sugar

120 ml ( 1/2 cup ) Vegetable oil

240 ml ( 1 cup) Boiling water

1 tsp Instant Coffee Powder

1 tbsp White Vinegar

Frosting:

Whipping Cream 1 Cup

Vanilla Essence 1 Tsp

Icing Sugar 1 Tbsp

Ganache/ Chocolate Syrup

Ganache ration for filling 1.5:1 (chocolate: Cream)

Fondant:

Sugar paste - 200 gm

Edible gel color

corn flour - as required

Tools:

Palette Knife

Offset Spatula

Nozzle Bag

Cake board

Side Scrapper

Rotating Table

Serrated Knife

Take the 8 inch pan and grease and dust the pan and keep aside.

Take the dry ingredients and sieve it together till well mixed.

Keep it aside.

Also, preheat the oven at 180 degree for 10 minutes.

Take boiled water and add coffee powder. It imparts a good flavor to the chocolate cake.

Add the sugar to the hot coffee mix.

Now add the hot water and coffee mix to the dry ingredients. Add in oil, vanilla essence and vinegar and mix well with a whisk.

Bring the batter together with a spatula.

Transfer to the baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes.

The baking time will vary with each oven. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack after its baked. Let it cool.

Sugar Syrup:

Water - 1 Cup

Sugar - 6 Tbsp

Boil the water with sugar till well dissolved. Let it cool. It is used to soak the cake layers and it will make it moist.

Ganache:

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and cream till smooth. Let it cool.

You can also use the microwave and heat the mix in 10 seconds interval. Keep mixing in between.

Let it cool.

Take the baked cake and with help of a serrated knife make layers out of it.

Keep the three layers aside. I have made 3 layers here.

To get more height you can use 7 inch pan (1 kg) and 5 inch pan (1/2 kg) for baking.

To frost the cake, take the cake board and place the first layer.

Soak the layer with simple sugar syrup and the add a dollop of ganache.

If you are using chocolate syrup here you can add a layer of whipped cream and then chocolate syrup.

Do the same with all the 3 layers.

For the sea theme:

Take a chilled bowl and chill the beater blade

The whipping cream should be fully thawed by keeping in the fridge from freezer.

Take the liquid whipping cream. Add in icing sugar, sky blue gel color and vanilla essence.

Beat at high speed If ever you are stopping in between, when you start next time it should be on high speed.

Beat till stiff peaks.

After your layers are stacked and looking nice and even, it’s time to give your cake a quick crumb coat.

A crumb coat is simply a very thin layer of frosting that you spread over the whole cake.
To crumb coat a cake, just spread a very thin layer of icing over the cake using an offset spatula.

Once it’s finished, give your cake a quick chill in the refrigerator to help this base layer set.

After your crumb coat is set, you can start giving your cake the finishing touch. Start by using an offset spatula to frost the top of the cake.

Cover the sides of the cake with frosting.

Run the scrapper around the cake to get a good smooth finish.

After smoothing the sides of your cake, use the same technique to smooth the top using the angled spatula

Fondant is edible sugar paste with which we will create all the marine items.

Firstly for sugar paste art we require molds, cut outs or it can be hand crafted too.

To harden the sugar paste you will need a little bit of corn flour or tylose powder.

Here I am using the corn flour with sugar paste and leaving it to dry.

I am using edible gel colors with sugar paste for the color fondant.

First step would be to prepare the fondants. Take some sugar paste and add some corn flour and gel color.

Knead it well till the color is well incorporated.

I am using purple, blue and pink fondants.

Roll the purple/ pink fondant with a rolling pin on a lightly dusted surface.

With help of mermaid fin cutter you can make the cutouts. Keep it aside in an airtight tin.

We need the fin to stand upright. So add a wooden skewer at the back of the fin once the fins are completely dried and has hardened.

Take some sugar paste and mix with purple gel color.

Make strips out it and twist it as in the photo. Leave it to dry for some time.

To harden it I have added corn flour while mixing.

This is a silicon mold that I am using. I have used the skin gel color and mixed it with sugar paste.

Lightly dust the silicon mold and insert the sugar paste.

Press it gently and clear the side outline of the mold. Now take out your sugar paste from the mold.

The sea shell imprint is visible now.

For the beach sand I have used the wafers. In a mixer I just pulsed it till a crumbly texture.

Keep it aside.

Place the crumbled wafers on the base of cake.

Add the sea weed structures on the cake. Just place it lightly.

Place your sea shells.

And the Fish tails to top it all. Sea beach theme cake representing the oceans and the marine life. Here it is.

Delicious chocolate cake with ganache frosting and vanilla whipped cream.

Hope you like it. Let me know your views.