A friend asked me if I was interested in making her father's 70th birthday cake. Theme - Tropical/Caribbean for 40-50 people poolside in their retirement housing complex. No talk of flavors since I haven't agreed to do it. Originally she said sheet cake, but I told her I would do tiered since I only have a 9x13x2 or 10" sq or 8" sq. I also have many size rounds.

I have only been doing cakes for a year, and not very many at that. I have never done flowers, so I am limited. When I think of tropical I think of flowers and beach or seashells, so not manly - I need some other ideas - PLEASE I only use fondant for accent pieces not to cover a cake (too affraid to try). It will be end of June in 90-100 degree temps.

TIA

What if you did a two tiered cake colored blue with hammok on top and fresh tropical flowers and some seashells colored brown shades so they dont look girly. just an idea.

. . . this one doesn't seem too girly to me . . . http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_783173.html

I have seen some neat beach-themed cakes using 3 round tiers where the bottom is the ocean, the middle is the beach, and the top is the sky. Then you can apply cutouts, figures or BC things to each layer:

TOP: Sky (seagulls, clouds, sun)
MIDDLE: Beach (crabs, trees, sandals, surf board, tropical drinks, etc.)
BOTTOM: Ocean (fish, seaweed, sand, treasure chest, diver, etc.)

if you want to do some simple flowers here are some that you just press the icing through and 1 requires a slight turn. You could do them in tropical orange and yellow and do some leaves in lime green. The best finish for the flowers is a white dot in the center. I like the others suggestions as well but I noticed you said you hadn't done flowers and these techniques are fairly simple to achieve.


http://www.wilton.com/decorating/basic/dropflowers.cfm

HTH and good luck!!!!

Thanks! I like the idea of the three tiers, but not so much beachy as tropical manly. I do like the palm tree with hammock and seagul and tropical drink with unbrella idea. Maybe a man laying in the hammock with a hat over his face.

SugarBakerz - I will have to try some flowers - I have to start somewhere, right? The Wilton page says you can let them dry overnight - won't they still be soft to the touch to move them? I has to go back and double check that they weren't RI.

Thanks ladies - now I'm getting excited to maybe take on this project

Here is my version of a beachy/tropical retirement cake. I didn't make the decorations by hand, but they were a huge hit. I just painted them a little to look more like the honoree. I"m a newbie and this was my first cake, but I just wanted to share....

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I like the lighthouse or the palm trees

What about a completely different spin on the theme and do a pig roast luau.