Lots of fun with this cake! It ended up weighing almost 45 lbs after it was done! Holy cow! The leaves, surfboard, and tiki bar and sign are all gumpaste. The trunk of the tree and the other post are modeling chocolate over dowels that extend through both tiers of the cake. To get the palm tree leaves to stay put, I first twisted stiff floral wire around the dowels and shaped them to suit me (all while the leave were drying over a big sport bottle). When the leaves were dry, I draped them over each wire and secured them in place with chocolate. I didn't have any green chocolate so I used white which was REALLY obvious. I had to cover it up with some green tinted fondant. Next time, I will use green chocolate. It held really well, I was surprised!