An Ocean/Sea Creature Birthday Cake

Jacob....my future Gordon Ramsey chef (minus the head bobbing and near heart attack spasms), loves seafood.  He makes a spicy broiled shrimp, rice, and vegetable dinner for us nearly every week.  It is sooo nice getting a night off.
He couldn't decide what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, so I offered to make him an Ocean theme one. I did that for two reasons...  the obvious being that he loves seafood.  The second is because I love a challenge. :)   I wanted to see if I could form sea creatures from fondant.
Jacob gave me a list of the creatures he wanted included on his cake.  They ranged from an octopus to a shark to an angler fish.  I was so excited to get started.  I looked them up in an Ocean book the kids have and pulled them up on the internet, as well, to get a better look.  I didn't make everything on his list, but I added a few of my own.

Included here are:  a sting ray, shark, deep sea gulper eel, clown fish, starfish, jellyfish (can't remember its specific name), sea anemones, a spotted crab, and some scallops.  Sarah actually made the scallops by pressing them into a play-doh mold.  She did a great job.

Included on this plate are:  an octopus, jellyfish, and several tube worms.  Sarah helped me make the tube worms by wrapping pink fondant around clean pencils.  We left it to harden slightly and then slid the fondant off of the pencil and cut it into pieces.

The last few things we made were:  banded eels (those were fun to make, fun to look at, and easy to shape), some sea grass (Sarah made this by rolling a serrated fondant cutter across the fondant), and a black devil fish...I was loving those teeth.  :)

The day of the party, I made a cake and used Wilton's Whipped Icing.  It's the kind that comes in a box...you mix the powder with ice water and it is absolutely delicious.  This cake was my first experience using it and I was definitely happy with the results.  It is so light and fluffy...perfect for the ocean waves I wanted to create on the cake.  I iced the cake and then sprayed it with blue icing spray.  I left some parts white for the crests of the waves.  Then I got to add the sea creatures.. I love that part.

The gulper eel started to slide before the party started... ugh!  I was out of toothpicks, so I broke a prong off a plastic fork and stuck it in the cake to make him stay put.  Unfortunately, I forgot to mention this to the guests and my sister-in-law ended up nearly eating it.  She took it well  :)  She thought the fondant was especially crunchy all of the sudden.