A coworker has requested a 9 x 13 cake that I make for work a lot. It is a chocolate cake, with caramel and sweetened condensed milk. I normally frost it will Cool Whip or homemade whipped cream, but she has requested this be frosted with a mocha buttercream. I think it will be super sweet, but it's what she wants. I asked her how she wanted it decorated for the 5-year-old boy and she said whatever, it didn't matter. My problem is the icing will be a brown color and I am trying to figure out what type of decorations will look good on the brown icing. Any suggestions would be great!!!

Thanks!

Well, boy colors look pretty good on brown. So balloons, streamers, etc would look good on a brown background. Maybe stick to blues, greens, yellows?

White also looks good and adds a spark of brightness and sharpness to a cake that seems to have a blah background.

Try gummy worms since the icing will be a brown color. All five year old boys love dirt and worms.

Just think 5 year old. How about Winnie the Pooh? His colors would pop on brown.

How about cars,trucks, or motorcycles driving off road. you could put mounds like hills, add a little green grass, rocks...
or... you could do a camping cake if he likes that. any outdoor scene would work with brown frosting.

i like the idea of a camping theme, you could model a little fondant/gumpaste person sitting by a campfire, or the bug idea is cute. they make all sorts of gummy bugs, my 5 year olds would love a theme like that. by the way, that cake sounds delicious

an army theme would work on brown too.

JUNGLE!!!!!

i am thinking of trucks, buldozers, tractors. I think it would look cool.

How about a cowboy or western theme; maybe something with soldiers?

Trucks in the mud!

Those all sound great! Thank you! I will talk to her again and give her some ideas to see if anything sounds most interesting to her.

okay this might be a lot of work, but if you didnt want to 'see' the brown you could do like a FBCT over the entire top of the cake with just a crumb coat of the mocha underneath and then on the sides of course. I guess it wouldnt be entirely mocha flavored, plus doing a FBCT that size might be a lot. But just a thought. or you could just do a FBCT and stick it on the brown. I think that would look fine... Maybe sports theme, firetruck, sailboats etc.

5 year old boys - go for the gummy bugs or jungle animals theme. They love those stuff.
I have a 6 yr old handsome boy and he loves chocolate and animals/bugs of any shape and kind!

bright yellows, red, blues all will brighten the cake.