Teepee

My father-in-law's birthday followed soon after. In addition to being a full-time pastor, he has gone back to school to pursue a Master's degree in History (his specialization is in Native American studies). We started carving our cakes with an electric carving knife, and staged this one on a bed of graham cracker crumbs. The cactus was simply made of wood and covered in fondant, while the tepee "posts" are cinnamon sticks. I like this one not only because of all the different dyes we used, but the tent flaps are really folded back, held in place with broken toothpicks. The designs are piped icing, but the pelts are fondant Tara cut out and pasted on with water. (You can't see it, but one of them is supposed to be a beaver, so she put a crisscross texture on its wide, flat tail.)

Mushroom

We had more fun with this cake than any of its predecesors, mainly because of the staging. My father has worked in the mushroom industry for twenty years, and this is essentially what a crate of compost looks like with tiny buds sprouting up (except, of course, for the gigantic monster 'shroom in the middle, which--stem and all--is the cake here). The "compost" is crushed-up Oreo cookies, and the other tiny fungi are leftover mini marshmallows. Each layer sits on a cardboard platform which is in turn supported by plastic dowels. The fondant was super simple, since it didn't even need to be dyed.