My friend just asked me to do a cake for her girlfreind's 40th birthday. We are meeting later this week to talk design, but I am drawing a blank. All she has told me so far is that she likes, teal, taupe, wildflowers, owls, and frogs. And we are looking at about 35 people.

Any ideas on how to pull that all together and still look classy? Or should I ask her which is the most important and focus on that? I am afraid all those together will look like a 4 year old's party, not a 40th!!!

TIA

Well, it would not be difficult to come up with a chocolate frosting with a dark taupe color, or a maple-spice frosting in a light taupe color, so why not use that as your base color?

Then you could use teal for the lettering and trim, and maybe incorporate an edible image of a pond scene (presumably composited in Photoshop, GIMP, or whatever), with a frog, an owl, and assorted wildflowers.

BTW, where pictures are concerned, Wikimedia Commons is your friend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ibcablr/5990404326/

You always find the funniest things online. It's a cake topper but I think it will get those creative juices started. http://www.flickr.com/photos/trinasclaycreations/7732241134/

Maybe a 2-tier cake? Top tier will look like this http://www.google.com/imgres?q=pond+cake&hl=en&biw=1011&bih=758&tbm=isch&tbnid=w6uXZQdRlmvE9M:&imgrefurl=http://www.bakingobsession.com/2009/11/09/frog-in-a-pond-cake/&docid=SCgXRCMAF1FqPM&imgurl=http://www.bakingobsession.com/wordpress/wp-content/frog-cake.jpg&w=500&h=753&ei=W61YUKvODYSg8QS024HwCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=513&vpy=218&dur=2069&hovh=276&hovw=183&tx=94&ty=158&sig=104712545335266997935&page=2&tbnh=135&tbnw=90&start=20&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:20,i:144 and the bottom tier like this http://www.google.com/imgres?q=frog+and+owl+cake&hl=en&biw=1011&bih=758&tbm=isch&tbnid=abpw6JofNzG1fM:&imgrefurl=http://staceyssweetshop.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html&docid=CgRXTmiYjky6nM&imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WYG4Kg64Ijo/TlRAZDhn5YI/AAAAAAAACpk/DrwhgKa3pLQ/s1600/baby%25252Bshower%25252Bowl%25252Bcake%25252Btoppers%25252Bcopy_sm.jpg&w=720&h=540&ei=f6xYUKDFNYe-9QSP0YGwBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=414&sig=104712545335266997935&page=3&tbnh=131&tbnw=183&start=48&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:21,s:48,i:295&tx=108&ty=82

Personally, I'd work creating a cake with flowers in the colors that she wants and put the frog and owl on top with a cute saying etc.

HTH

Thanks for the ideas guys. Now it is down to 25 people, so it will be a single layer for sure. Any other ideas out there??? I l work mostly with fondant.

Maybe something like this and maybe a owl sat on the cake board.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?start=215&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-GBfficial&biw=1024&bih=455&tbm=isch&tbnid=w6uXZQdRlmvE9M:&imgrefurl=http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/romanitsa/tags/%25F2%25EE%25F0%25F2%25FB/&docid=gn6kFK_z8uZ6fM&imgurl=http://www.bakingobsession.com/wordpress/wp-content/frog-cake.jpg&w=500&h=753&ei=MQhaUN2GO4HZ0QXu8IDIDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=800&vpy=66&dur=2869&hovh=276&hovw=183&tx=144&ty=187&sig=111725953601429046911&page=14&tbnh=133&tbnw=88&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:215,i:98