Okay, my 20-something brother's b-day is next week & we (family) really want to do (Surprise!) "The Village" cake with, of course, the good & bad colors-yellow & red. But what else could we do? I'm thinking a 9x13 or 10x15 sheet cake depending on size needed for design. Somewhere (if I can find them), I've got little houses (plastic-Monopoly game) I painted tan & covered with straw? for roofs, years ago, for a Jamestown cake that I made when I was in middle school. What else could I use for houses? Candy? So..., maybe a village area with "the good color" border at forest edge? How would I make trees realistic & have "the bad color" berries visible in the forest? Berries could be cinnamon candies, but probably would be too big for scale of overall cake. I don't know what else I can do. The only pans I have are 8" & 9" rounds, 6" & 8" sq. (1 ea.), and 9x13 & 10x15. I've only used Wilton buttercream recipe-1/2 c. each crisco & butter/marg. to 4-5 c. confectioners sugar. My experience is only b-day cakes for family. Please, do any of you have any ideas? Thanks!!!

You could make it look like grass in the forest
with little dots of red icing for the bad color.Put the red
slash of color on the doors of the houses.You could buy
the plastic trees at the $ store for the forest.Little people in
yellow cloaks made out of fondant.I love that movie.Can't wait
to see your pic of it when its finished.

Bigboots

That was a good movie! What if you made a door-shaped cake with a red X on it. I think that was in the movie. Been a while since I saw it...

For a village, you could buy some plastic trees from a cake shop and pipe the red berries on.

Sorry...I found a pic and it was just a red slash that was on the door.

I like that movie...Just out of curiosity, why that movie?
I like the door theme suggestion.

You could use Tootsie Rolls for the tree stumps the boys stand on at the edge of the forest to see who's bravest.

I would do as Lisa suggests..the door with the red slash...

I would also "drape" a "cape" over one of the cake bottom corners...

Or make the door in the corner so you have an area to write...I forgot what the movie trailer said..but it was very sinister..lol...then after that you can write HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your brother..lol

I couldn't help but stick my nose in this one. Loved the movie!

As I read your posts I started thinking about BigBoots idea about the woods and the berries being there and someone mentioned a cloaked figure (in the good color) walking towards the woods. So, here is my two cents worth:

It's winter so you can't have completely green trees as the woods. My suggestion is to do scary trees on a stand up colorflow plaque (like what you see in the Wilton yearbook-it's one of the halloween castles or something they have that has windows with the night sky and black tree silhouettes in them. One of the most recent years-'04 to '06 - it's in one of these that I have.) I guess you would use lolly pop sticks to stand them up.

(You know what...just forget the colorflow and roll out some MMF that has gumtex kneaded into it - to make it dry hard - cut it into rectangles or plaques and just use a royal icing to draw your trees on them.)

Make some red dots in a cluster on one of the MMF tree backgrounds.

Have a very simple human shape covered in a fondant cloak (you know, yellow for the "good color") standing just outside the entrance into the woods.

Have a watch tower on the cake as well. Maybe do another fondant plaque with the tower drawn on it so that you can have it standing but not have a whole lot of assembly you would have if you tried to make it life-like.

Just a thought. I'm going to try to show this in a drawing and will atach it. Hope this works!!

Okay, I'm not getting anything when I opened that attachment. I'll try something else. Sorry.

Here is my scribble drawing.

Ooh, I love all of your ideas, & how kind to actually do a drawing, Fytar! Thanks so much!

What is MMF & gumtex? Do you refrigerate Rolled Fondant? How do you color it? Does it run? My red & blue icings always seem to separate & weep/run if put it on the cake too far in advance. Refrigeration doesn't help-we do NOT have a climate controlled kitchen! I saw some rolled fondant today at Walmart in the "Wilton" dept. - is it the same as what you all use? I've never taken any classes; only used buttercream & canned icing ( sorry, to all of you real cake decorators). How far in advance would I have to make these decorations & bake/ice the cake? I usually make cakes the day of or day before the b-day (stay up all night )-NO storage/container for cakes bigger than 9x13. Sorry for all of the questions-I only have a week to decide & get it made.

Sweettreasures, The Village, because we always do a cake reflecting whatever is going on in the person's life/their interests OR is it a gift?

Hey, may I brag on my younger sis? Please?? She made a surprise 3-D aquarium cake (stacked 2-9x13's) for my b-day. I have a 10 gal which I had just finished buying fish for & was obsessing over. She did icing dots at the bottom colored to match the gravel in my tank, Swedish fish candy (I have a red platy) "swimming" in the water (blue icing) & plants/rocks just like mine-even the black trim around the tank top & bottom--all from buttercream she made herself. I LOVED it!! We hadn't even found this website/forum, yet! I'm so proud of her! (Sorry, please forgive me for gushing.)

Sorry for the rambling post!

bakersofcakes, Yes, Wilton makes pre-made fondant that is so easy to use. It just tastes nasty. As you were asking abou the MMF (marshmallow fondant) I got to thinking that since you've not used that before, just buy one package of the Wilton pre-made fondant. Take it out of the package a little at a time (however much you think you may need for a certain piece of the cakes design) as you don't want to be sitting there with a large piece and it dry out while you are not using it. Knead it for a few minutes to make it more pliable and then coat your work surface with corn starch (some say to spray with vegetable spray, but when I used it, it left a yellow-like color to it - which is actually fine if you don't use too much as you aren't exactly going for the white white color anyway). Roll out your fondant with a rolling pin or something similar and then just use a sharp knife or similar to cut out your designs. Lay them on wax paper to harden and then decorate with royal icing or whatever else you want to use.

Make sure you keep your fondant in a ziplock bag when you are not working with it as it will dry out and make it unusable.

Gum Tex can be found at Michael's with all the other cake decorating stuff.

Really sorry, but have more ???s. I only have Wilton icing paste colors & old-fashioned (but new) food coloring. On another forum topic, I read something about powder-?, I think-for coloring fondant? (Expense is definitely an issue here.) Where do you get the yellow coloring for fondant or could I use Wilton yellow? Thanks for all the help you've already given!

Fytar, thanks for the info on fondant, etc. When do you color fondant-when you are kneading it? Thanks

Oh, yes, you can use your Wilton paste color. Just take a chunk of the fondant and knead in a little of the yellow paste until you think it is colored completely or to the color that you want. To add the paste to the fondant you can just use a toothpick and kinda poke at the fondant in several different places.

You can use a crusting buttercream to draw on the fondant as well. I have never used just the paste to draw on the fondant but if I remember correctly, it does dry eventually - I think. You might want to post a question on that.

Thanks so much, Fytar!

Everyone, the b-day cake of The Village was a SUCCESS!!! I certainly couldn't have done it without all of your suggestions & help! Thanks soooo much!

I actually used all of your suggestions ...the door with the "bad color" slash, the woods with the "bad color" berries, of course, the "good color" cloaked figure headed to the woods & even the stump.

I made a 10x15 cake & then...Picture you're standing in the doorway (door has red slash) [@ right of cake]& looking [left] across porch, towards woods, where you see a stump in the distance at edge of forest--with clusters of small red berries here & there in woods. Around the middle of cake you see the back of a person, in a full yellow cloak, headed towards the woods. I used black candles with marks of "good color" icing on them to border edge of the woods--like in the movie when they were painting the posts around the perimeter. Of course, the door height was about the width of the cake & the woods were way off in distance at opposite upper corner. I tried to make it look realistic & think I pulled it off. In the "good color" was written, "Happy Birthday" at top of cake & near the bottom of the cake in the "bad color" was written, "... from those we don't speak of."

(Fytar, I hope you don't mind, but I actually used your excellent drawing to make a BCT of the cloaked figure. It was my 1st attempt @ BCT & turned out OK. I didn't have the $$$ to buy fondant & wasn't sure about making MMF, but did have to make buttercream icing anyway. Also, my brother decided he wanted to celebrate his b-day E-A-R-L-Y! so I really had to work fast. Well, I still want to try the fondant sometime, so I'll keep it in mind for other cakes I make. Thanks for all the help.)

(Sorry, I don't have a camera & my brother didn't have any film for his so, unfortunately, I don't have any pics.)

Thanks again everyone!!!