Fish Bowl Cake

Heat oven to 350°F. Line bottom of two 8-in. round cake pans with wax paper. Grease and flour pans. Prepare cake mix as package directs. Bake in pans 20 to 25 minutes until golden and a wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack.

Remove, cover and reserve 11⁄2 cups frosting. Tint rest light blue.

Invert cakes on wire rack. Remove paper. Spread flat side of one layer with 3⁄4 cup blue frosting. Top with other cake, flat side down. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Trim 3⁄4 in. off opposite sides of cakes (for flat base and top of fish bowl).

Set cake, a flat side down, on platter. Spoon 1⁄2 cup untinted frosting into a ziptop bag. Frost top and 2 in. down sides of cake with rest of untinted frosting.

With a ruler, mark a line around the  cake 11⁄2 in. from top. Spoon 1 cup blue frosting into a ziptop bag. Snip tip off a corner and pipe a line along marks for a clean edge. Cover cake beneath line with blue frosting spread smooth.

With scissors, cut Fruit by the Foot in 1- to 3-in.-long seaweed shapes. Press gently on cake. Add chow mein noodles, “seaweed” and rock candy. Arrange Nerds “gravel” around base of cake. Press on fish crackers. Pipe eyes with black tube frosting. Using tweezers, add confetti “bubbles” above fish.

Snip a 1⁄2-in. corner from bag with untinted frosting. Pipe a ring around top of cake for lip of fish bowl. Fill with blue coarse sugar. Insert a toothpick into 1 fish cracker; insert in top.

Flatten spice drop; cut out a small starfish. Pipe black dot in center. Place, with more rock candy, next to cake.

*Paste and gel food colors can be found in cake-decorating, party-supply and crafts shops.