Flip-flop cakes are a fun and popular idea for a summer pool party, or for any summer beach or luau-themed birthday party. You could pair with the flip-flop craft! Use the color scheme I have here, or use the birthday girl's favorite colors, or even the color scheme of her favorite pair of flip-flops.

Ingredients

• oval 10.75 x 7.8 inch cake pan
• 2 boxes of your favorite cake mix and the additional ingredients needed to make the cake recipe
• 4 cups decorator icing
• pink food coloring
• violet food coloring
• royal blue food coloring
• white fondant
• shortening (just enough to keep the fondant from sticking)
• fondant roller
• 2 pieces of floral wire

• pastry bag
• Wilton #104 decorator tip
• cake board (large enough to fit two oval cakes, side by side)
• aluminum foil
• scotch tape
• 1 cup vanilla wafers or graham crackers
• rolling pin
• larger flower fondant cutter (optional)
• smaller flower fondant cutter (optional)
• flip-flop cake pattern

Instructions

1.
Bake two cakes using the 10.75 x 7.8 inch oval cake pan (You can use a larger or smaller oval pan; just adjust the rest of the instructions accordingly.)
2.
While the cake is baking and cooling, print out the flip-flop cake pattern, or make one of your own on 8 ½ x 11 paper, following this pattern .
3.
While the cakes are cooling, color a golf ball size piece of fondant pink by adding pink food coloring to it, and then pulling and twisting the fondant until the color is worked all the way through. You may need to use a little shortening to keep the fondant from sticking to your hands
4.
Bend a piece of floral wire in half (you may need to use a pair of pliers to pinch the middle together, just make sure you don't pinch your fingers!), then shape the wire to match the strap on a flip-flop (see photo below step #5).
5.
Use your hands to pull and roll the pink fondant into a long rope shape, then wrap the fondant around the floral wire and smooth it out. Set the fondant covered wire aside to dry and harden

6.
To make a flower for the front of the flip-flop strap, color a small bit of fondant violet. Roll out the violet fondant with a fondant roller, and cut it with a flower shaped fondant cutter. If you want to make a layered 2 flower design (like in the photos) use the 2 flower fondant cutters of different sizes; cut the larger flower form the violet fondant, and the smaller flower from the pink fondant you have left over from making the flip-flop strap. Other options:
a. If you don't want to do this you can leave the strap plain.
b. Make several smaller fondant flowers, and place them all along the flip-flop straps.

7.
When the cake has cooled, use a serrated knife to level the tops of the cakes.
8.
Use the flip-flop pattern—or your own pattern—to cut each cake into a flip-flop shape. Make sure you flip the pattern over to do the second shoe (so it's opposite), or you'll end up with two right, or two left shoes.

9.
Cover a piece of cardboard with foil. Make sure the board is large enough to fit both cakes side by side.
10.
Color 1 ½ cups of the decorator icing royal blue. Cover most of the top of the foil with blue icing to look like water.
11.
Lay the cakes gently on top of the blue icing, centered on the board. Make sure you put the cut side down, and lay them the way your feet would be if you're standing (big toes on the inside).

12.
Color 1 cup of the icing pink, and use it to ice the sides of the cakes with a pastry knife.

13.
Color 1 cup of the icing light violet (don't use much color so it comes out light), and use this to ice the top of the cake.
14.
Let the icing dry for about 30 minutes.
15.
Once the icing is dry, use a paper towel to smooth the bumps in the icing and to give the top of the shoe a patterned texture.
16.
Make the rest of the violet icing darker by adding more violet color to it.
17.
Use a Wilton #104 decorator tip to make a border all the way around the cake where the side meets the top of the shoe. Squiggle the tip back and forth to give the border a ruffled look (see photo).

18.
Use a rolling pin to crush about a cup of vanilla wafers, or graham crackers. Sprinkle the crushed cookies around the flip-flops to look like sand.
19.
Set the fondant strap in place on top of the cake.

20.
Attach the fondant flower to the spot where the two straps come together in front to go down into the shoe. If the flower is too dry to stick you can use a little vanilla on the back of the flower for "glue."

Tips

• The flip-flop cake would go well with the flip-flop craft project for a pool or beach party.
• If you use a butter cream icing to decorate the cake, keep it out of high heat and direct sunlight so the icing doesn't melt or fade.