Once upon a time, I bought an Octopus-Shaped Cake Pan…

Why, you might ask? Well, because I was having a Sea Creature/Luau Theme-Party.

Because, well, why not?

So, one bright sunshiny day, I baked a cake that looked very little like an Octopus at first.

Then, using a whole slew of blue dye, I worked myself up some blue-ish frosting and some white frosting. I covered the octopus with blue-ish frosting, then made a little bed of white frosting around the cake.

Next, I sorted out blue and green mini m&ms to make the little tentacle suckers. I eyeballed the m&m placement to result in the best possible tentacles! I mostly just ate the rest, except for saving two brown ones for the octopus eyes.

By the time I was done making the tentacles beauteous, it was pretty easy to put the little white blobs of eye-ball frosting on the cake and then stick the brown m&ms into the right spot to complete the effect! I added googly-eyes to my octopi, of course.

After that, it was all just a matter of creating a swimmingly sugary ocean environment. I used a boatload of  sparkly blue sprinkles to form the depths of the big blue, then decorated it using swedish fish, gummy sharks, and some ocean-themed cake decorative sugary shapes (all from my your average local grocery store).

Finally, I stepped back and surveyed my handiwork…

I thought it looked pretty good, and my guests seemed to agree with me! I took a picture before we devoured it so I might have proof-positive that even a person of few cake-decorating talents can make a snazzy looking Octopus cake, given the right tools!

If I do this Ocean theme again, here are some other fun ideas I have stumbled onto. . .