These days, my cakes are made for family birthdays. I made this sweet little mermaid cake for my grand daughter Natalie. Hard to believe she is turning 8 years old! I always ask what they want on the inside, as well as the theme for the outside of the cake. The request for this one was “red velvet with buttercream frosting”, and “Mermaid” as the theme. I took that 1 step further, and added a cheesecake layer on the bottom of the cake! Cake and Cheesecake? It’s a great flavor and texture combination.

I started with 2 homemade 8″ red velvet cake layers, made the day before. I used some extra batter to make 4 jumbo cupcakes (which I would use to form the mermaid tail). I covered these, and placed them in the refrigerator overnight.

You can make your own cheesecake – but why? This cake already took several hours to make, so I purchased a 10″ Eli’s assorted flavor cheesecake, pre-sliced. It’s delicious. I just cut it down to 8″ to match my cake layers, and it fit together perfectly! Everyone will get a surprise cheesecake flavor when we cut into it!

The mermaid “torso”, and edible decorations came from Hobby Lobby. I fashioned the mermaid’s “tail feathers” using parchment paper, shaped over my rolling pin – then painted on a heavy coating of melted teal colored candy melts to resemble a fluttery tail. Make sure it is strong enough, as it will be very fragile (and breakable) if it’s not thick enough. I let it dry, then put a few more coats on it to be sure. Then chill in the frig til you are ready to assemble the cake.

Here is the cheesecake layer:

I placed this on my cardboard cake circle, and pressed it together tightly. Then I trimmed it to an 8″ circle. Yes, I saved the pieces I cut off for snacking later!

I mixed up 2 batches of my cream cheese buttercream frosting, and start to assemble the cake. I leveled the 2 cake layers.