Said the Fish to the Mermaid, "Will You Mahi Me?"

Alexis and Curt were having a destination wedding in Key West, FL.  A few weeks prior to the actual wedding, they hosted a "pre-reception" at her family's Canton, OH home. 

In keeping with the tropical wedding theme, Alexis wanted to surprise Curt with his favorite fish--the colorful Mahi-Mahi. 

The cake portion of the fish is over 2 feet long and 12 inches wide at the forehead.  It was at least 30 servings of vanilla cake with cookies 'n cream buttercream covered in vanilla fondant.  The fins are gumpaste.  The piece was airbrushed and handpainted using edible paint.

To complete the tableau,
a sculpted mermaid accompanied the Mahi.
Her tail is actually 10 servings of carved chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream and covered in aqua blue vanilla fondant.  Her torso, head, and hair are hand modeled from modeling chocolate.  Her tail is gumpaste.

The decorative board was made by layering scrunched up colored cellophane and various sea life scrapbooking elements.  This was then covered with a layer of clear, foodsafe cellophane.

Because 100+ servings were required, the Mahi was displayed on a 34" long cake "plaque" made up of 30+ servings of white cake with cookies 'n cream buttercream filling and 30+ servings of chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream filling.  It was covered in wood-grain patterned chocolate fondant.