Hello, I'm new to cake decorating and have only had a few orders so far. A former co-worker has just asked me to do a 40th birthday cake for her husband. She said he's into 4-wheelers.

I was thinking of doing a "dirt trail" in the shape of a big "40" on the cake and putting a toy 4-wheeler on it and adding grass, etc.

My problem is it's a full sheet cake, which is a lot of space to have to decorate. I just don't know what all to put on it. I don't want to overdo it, but I don't want it to look empty either.

Any tips or advice that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

There is thread over in the general section about camoflage cakes.... thats sort of outdoorsey... Heres the link

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-598841-camo.html

I think the trail is a good idea and if you wanted to use up some space you could make a small pond or maybe some hills. You could use gel icing and color it a green to make a pond and maybe use some candy to make rocks . HTH

I like your idea of the 40 as a dirt trail. The pond idea is a good one to. You could even have a water fall coming off the side of the cake.

Maybe you want to try making rice crispy treat hills to cover with frosting. That would give the cake some depth.

Thank you so much, you've given me some great ideas! I feel a lot better about getting started now.