Well, the cake turned out okay. I should have stuck with the "original" and just done the campfire. I had this whole "camp area" in my mind. Sleeping bag, fire, roasting shmellows. The whole bit. The shmellows and the fire turned out great but the sleeping bag ended up looking like a green lump. Oh well. It's the thought that counts, right? In case you were wondering, here's the play by play....
9x13 cake carved out to resemble a green lump and covered in fondant. Frosting smeared on the left to hold down the "ashes". (Note: First successful coloring of fondant and fondant not making me swear!! Yay me!!!)
Crumbled donut holes. The recipe called for chocolate donut holes. Do those even exist? I looked EVERYWHERE!!!! So, we went with powdered donuts for "white hot ashes".
Two loaf pans with edges and ends carved to resemble logs.....one small cupcake top frosted and added to top log to resemble a knot in the tree....
White frosting added to chocolate frosting to make a contrasting color. Piped in a circular pattern on ends of logs.
Fruit roll ups cut to resemble logs. Red and yellow gel to help with fiery glow. Turned out more like ketchup and mustard. OH well.... There's got to be a better way to do flames. They kept falling over. Ideas?
The green blob with stitching.
The end result. Okay, I guess. I'm learning from my mistakes. Simplify. Note: I intended to use mini-marshmallows for the roasters. They were too sticky and looked weird when smashed onto the bamboo skewer. So I improvised and made them out of fondant.
All in all, not a bad cake. The boy loved it. That's all that matters!!!!