Awesome Homemade Moana Cake

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Most important part of the birthday setup is the cake. I quite enjoy decorating cakes, however I am not a pro or even an amateur. I'm a mom who decorates cakes on birthdays and that is it. No fondant, no homemade batter, no fancy stuff, just regular cake from a box with store bought frosting. So if you're in that position, this is the perfect cake for you to make.

What you'll need:

1. Cake mix - 1 box

2. Frosting - 2- 16 oz cans of white frosting (any flavor)

3. Food coloring (yellow and blue)

4. Aluminum foil (optional for a clean finish)

5. Cake decorating tips - regular thin circle tip OR frosting writing gel (I do NOT recommend this option)

6. sprinkles - if your child insists that sprinkles must be on their cake.

7. Moana cake toppers - these aren't the exact ones I used but are very similar. The ones I bought are no longer available on Amazon.

8. toothpicks - 4-5 are needed to hold up the cake toppers

9. Candles - I got my flower candles at Walmart and cannot find a link for them. Here is a pack of flower candles from Amazon that might work nicely.

Steps for the perfect (easy) Moana cake:

1. Bake whatever type of cake you want in a 9x13 pan. One regular sized cake mix box is enough. Allow several hours for it to cool before you need to frost it. Pro tip: you're gonna want one part of the cake taller than the rest (to make the island) so don't worry about smoothing it out when you pour it in the pan.

2. When the cake is cooled, place tin foil around the edges for a clean finish. Note: I didn't do this (because I forgot) and it turned out okay. You just have to wipe any excess frosting off the sides of the pan when you're done).

3. Get a great big scoop of the frosting in a bowl and put a few (maybe 2-4) drops of yellow food coloring in. This is gonna be the sand so you want it very light yellow. I would use about 1/3 - 1/2 of one frosting can. I tried different color options with red and orange as well and they looked awful, so though the yellow doesn't exactly look like sand, it was the best option.

4. Find the highest part of the cake to put the yellow frosting. This is gonna be your island. Depending on how many cake toppers you have will determine how large you want to make this area. Spread the frosting over this area.

5. Next take a whole can of frosting and dye it blue. You only need 5-7 drops of blue dye. The less you do, the lighter it'll be. If you want darker water, do more drops.

6. Spread the blue frosting all around the unfrosted parts of the cake. Be careful around the yellow frosting to make sure it goes right up against it but doesn't smear it very much. Don't worry about smoothing it down, it's water, it is supposed to be choppy.

7. Next grab a regular spoon or knife (anything with a small smooth surface) and push it slightly into the blue frosting then pull upwards. This will help create the waves. Do as many or as little as you want. If you do too many, don't worry, just smooth them out where desired.

8. Assess your cake. If there are any parts you don't like, fix them now. Try not to be a perfectionist at this point. It's a cake, it'll be eaten in a few hours and no one will remember the little imperfections.

9. Determine where you want to write Happy Birthday and where the cake toppers will go. I put the cake toppers on first to make sure they wouldn't fall into the writing. Maui is very top heavy so he's gonna need a few toothpicks to hold him up. I found that after 20-30 minutes of it sitting on my counter, the other toppers needed toothpicks as well so you might want to stabilize them from the beginning.

10. Cut a small corner out of a sandwich bag, place the round cake decorating tip in the corner (it should not go all the way through, there should be plenty of plastic bag wrapped around it), and then fill the bag with the remaining white frosting. Push the air out, seal the bag, and gently push the frosting down towards the decorating tip. Once the frosting is all gathered in one area, Twist the bag just above the frosting to keep it all in one place. This will also provide a great area for you to hold while you write Happy Birthday. Gently squeeze the bag to have frosting come out and write whatever you want on the cake. Note: If this is the first time you have ever done this, practice on a plate first.). If you choose to use frosting writing gel, use at your own risk. I tried it at first but it was so runny that the letters bled together and I had to scrape it off and smooth the frosting out again.

11. Lastly, place the sprinkles and candles on the cake. Enjoy!