The Joys of Caking: A Hunting We Will Go!

So back in October of 2015, I had just started my new job in a new town, three and a half hours away from everyone who knew me. So of course, I knew I had to show everyone what I could do, so they would want to buy cakes from me!

My co-worker, Jesse, had a birthday in October. He jokingly asked me to make him a birthday cake. So I decided to show off a little (it worked, people starting asking me for cakes. Just saying).

Jesse likes to hunt with a bow and arrow. I decided to make a two-tiered hunting cake, complete with hunter in a tree, with a bow and arrow. The tiers would be different flavors.

I made the hunter first because it was the hardest part and needed time to set. I started out with some manilla/tan colored fondant. I made pants and the torso first.

What would a hunting cake be without camouflage? I used my gel food colors and painted the different colored spots on. I thought it looked pretty good.

As you can see, I used the lid of the food coloring to prop the feet up while they were setting.

Then I added the left arm and hand and camouflaged that too.

Next I made the head and the right arm. I needed the right arm to be up in the air because I wanted him to be holding the bow and arrow. But, as usual, it was too heavy to sustain itself. So I made a little brown box to help prop his arm up.

And there was my hunter! (This is actually probably the opposite way of how he holds his bow in real life, but it's cake, don't be so picky.)

Now I needed to make the cake. I wanted to make the bottom tier camouflage as well. So I freehanded some lines and then piped different colors in each section, using the star tip. First tan.

Then light green.

Then a darker green.

Then brown.

I thought that turned out pretty well.

The next tier I colored blue to look like the sky.

Then I added a tree trunk. I also made a leaf border where the two tiers met to cover any imperfections.

Next I added some branches and leaves. I made these leaves using a single cutter. I normally use a different kind of fondant leaf, but I felt the size and texture of these leaves fit this cake better.

Now it looks a lot more like a tree!

For the top of the cake, I made a hunter's perch and some more branches. These branches would stick up on the top of the cake, so I wouldn't put them in until I got the cake to the office. I didn't want to risk moving it with them already in place because I knew they would fall over. I should have made them earlier to give them a little more time to set.

Once I made it to work with the cake, I added the branches, the perch, the hunter, and the bow and arrow.

Here you can see the bow and arrow and if you look closely, there is string on the bow, made from flower wire. It's the only part of the cake that isn't edible.