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.)