Fishing Cake

I made this cake for my Grandpa's 87th birthday! I'm running out of themes for his cakes- he doesn't have that many other interests. I've already done a garden cake, a crab basket cake, a tractor cake, and a barn and pigs cake for him. Oh well, he seemed to enjoy it! We had a big crab feast and party for him, and so much fun celebrating. First, I baked two 9x13 cakes and let them cool. Then, I stacked them with icing in between, and carved out some of the middle to make a lake, and arranged some of the extra cake pieces to create a hilly landscape. I used kelly green and moss green food gel to make different shades of green grass, which I piped all over the cake using a multi-opening grass tip. To make the cattails, I rubbed green and brown foodgel on thin wooden skewers, and used brown gumpaste to form the top part. I also made the fishing rod out of a wooden skewer, and the worm and hook out of gumpaste- it is attached with floss "fishing wire". I made the lily pads out of gumpaste, and the worms to form 87 out of gumpaste too. I crushed up some oreos for their dirt bed. The fish head and tail I made out of rice krispy treats that I then covered in gumpaste with green and brown food gel, and piped scales on with icing. The finishing touches were adding a small bobber to the fishing rod, and spooning in blue jello "water"!

I had planned for my grandpa's cake, but decided to make an extra accompanying cake for my cousin's friend. He just turned 25, so his worms spell out 25 instead. I used one 9x13 cake cut in half and stacked on top of itself. I looped some wire and stuck it in the cake, then made a small fish out of gumpaste on the wire, leaping out of the water and wearing a party hat. I scooped out the middle of the cake to form a small lake, covered the outside of the cake with more grass, and filled the lake with jello water and lily pads.

We didn't have 87 candles, so I put 8 candles on one side and 7 on the other. This is Grandpa's excited happy face haha.