I want to share the beautiful job she did on my grandson’s birthday cake that same year: She bought a basic white cake with white buttercream, then added vanilla wafer crumb sand and colored blue Cool-Whip waves. She molded that shark from fondant herself, and beached it on the cake!

My daughter also embedded red gummy sharks in blue Jello and added Cool-Whip waves. I was able to give her a couple of tips because of something I tried with my students. I poured warm blue Jello over gummy fish, using only one orange one (for finding Nemo!) When the Jello set up, the gummies rose, belly-up, to the top; they took on a rubbery texture, and their color bled into the “water!” I covered the whole dish with whip cream waves, and it was edible (hungry eighth graders will eat just about anything!) Unless you want your creation to look like a toxic waste dump, let Jello set, and then push in any gummies you choose to use! Serve them soon, before they “bleed out!”