Cowboy Birthday Cake

I've done so many cakes for my friend Steph that she is by far my best client. So when she said she wanted a cake that was "over the top", I had to deliver. Her family was throwing her Dad a 60th Birthday party with a cowboy theme to celebrate his childhood dream of being a cowboy. So I came up with this design. I hand-molded the cowboy, his two dogs, the campfire, logs, and cactuses (cacti?) out of fondant. I rolled ropes of fondant to sit at the base of each cake and drape around the large tier (the small red stars were large sprinkles from Wilton). The "golden horseshoe" was a nod to a former job where he met his wife, the Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland (isn't that the cutest?) - it was also cut out of fondant and painted with gold luster dust. I molded the "60" and the red stars out of chocolate. And I cut out the horse, boots, and cowboy hats with cookie cutters and paper patterns. The "dirt" on the top of the cake was chocolate icing covered with chocolate cookie crumbs, and the rocks were candy rocks that were also chocolate. I decided to cover the whole cake with fondant in a light denim blue, which really made all the details stand out. The cakes were chocolate chocolate chip cake with french vanilla custard filling, and cookies and cream cake with chocolate custard filling. Another fun project! Keep 'em coming, Steph! xoxo