I'm plan to make my first carved cake in a week for my neighbor's birthday. He really likes fishing and I've been wanting to try carved cakes for a while. Is a fish a good shape to start with? And I want it to look good, so I'm hoping to get all the tips I can from you kinda and helpful people here at CC.
I want it to look like a yellow-finned tuna.
I need tips on:

• how to carve a cake
  what size pans to use
  what kind of filling, if any, to use
  and anything else that a newbie might need to know to carve a successful cake

TIA!

how can i make it look like this?

Do you think the football pan would work for the bulk of the body? You should ask Doug. He seems to always have really good ideas for these sorts of things!

I did a fish cake for a grooms cake. It depends on how big you want the fish to be. I cut mine out of an 11x15 then I used the cut off parts on top of the body and carved until I got the shape I liked. I didn't use a filling. I think that would make it hard to work with. After I cut the shape I frosted it with butter cream and then covered in fondant. Then I painted it with luster dust. Hope that helps! Picture is too big to post, but you can click on my photos and it's at the bottom.

thanks for the great tips!
peacockplace: i was admiring your cake the other day. it's why i decided to be brave and try a carved cake

keep the info coming please!

I made a Nemo cake for my son's 2nd bday. I used the football pan for the body, like dodibug mentioned. I'll see if I can attach a pic of it here. I'm not sure the body would be as long and thin asthe fish you're looking to do, but....

I was unable to attach the picture here, but if you look in my photos, I have uploaded it there!!

...I did pretty much the same idea as peacockplace, but used a 9 x 13

I love the look on the fish's face-it's like he knows he's dinner!

well...since i don't have a football pan, i thought i could use my wondermold pan that i got for chrismas and cut it in half vertically, put the two big ends together to get the oval shape. unfortunately, the cake didn't even get onto the cooling rack my first time using the wonder mold pan. instuctions that came in the box said 2 cake mixes. i put in two, it looked like a lot, but i put it in the over anyways. and then disastar struck. thank goodness i put a cookie sheet under the wonder mold pan. i'm pretty sure like 1/2 the batter overflowed while baking! then when i tried to unmold it i found out that the center was still runny. so i ended up saving what i could and eating it for breakfast this morning and throwing the rest away
i think i might try it again tonight using just one cake mix.
if it still doesn't work......i guess i'll bake a trusty 9"x13" and try my luck at cake carving
wish me luck!

Sorry your first attempt didn't work out, hopefully the next will. Why can't you take your orignal photo to an enlarging place, have it enlarged to the size you want, glue it to bristol board and lay it on the cake to carve around??? I am VERY new to cake baking and decorating, there may be a reason why you can't do that, I don't know. It's just a thought.
By the way...that silver fish looks incredible!!!!

I think the directions say 1 2 layer cake mix. I bet that's what got ya! I had an overflow not long ago-what a disaster!!! I wasn't lucky enough to have a pan under-stinky burned mess to clean up!

I just bought Collette Peters The Art of Cake Decorating book today. And she has a fish cake in there. She carved it out of a 13x9 in pan. She cut it out diagonally.

I find I have to turn down the oven and cook for almost twice as long when I use the wonder mold pan. Even with the heating core, it just takes a loooooooooooong time to get that center cooked right.

SheliaF: thank you for the tip. i'll try that next time

jo_ann: what do you mean by 'she cut it in half diagonally'?

I have made fish before and used the head and tail of a Wilton pan and then carved the center of the body from a sheet cake. Mine was 3 feet long so I cut is in half and carved it from there. Good Luck! You have a great picture to use!

Here are some photos I found on how to carve a fish cake...the cake is a bit more simplistic than the tuna you have posted here though.
Let's see if I can do this now bear with me...

Here're the other steps...

Forgot to mention that these pics are not mine.
Here is another idea (again not my cake)

She starts in the lower left hand corner of the cake (for the head) and cuts along diagonally on the cake so she ends up in the upper right hand corner of the cake.Am I making sense. I can scan the instructions and send them to your email if you want.