I am very much a beginner cake decorator. I would like to make cake for a baby shower with an umbrella theme. I like the blue tiered cake in a Wilton book, but am afraid it may be a little advanced for me since I have not worked with fondant at all. Does anyone have any ideas or tips that would help me?
Thanks,
Kelley

Which Wilton book are you talking about?

You can make MMF or make umbrellas out of colorflow.
You also can pipe them right on a cake. Here's one I did:
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=53819

Here are two gorgeuos cakes,

http://www.oksugar.com/images/november_6_2006/DSC00068.JPG

http://www.holliessweets.net/umbrella.jpg

HTH.

I have made an umbrella cake once for a bridal shower, you can check out my gallery to see it.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=436653

The umbrella part was the easiest to do. I just cut a round cakein half and stacked it together. Then I traced the round cake pan (just half of it and ) on wax paper and made a template out of that to cut out the from the fondant. Then, I used the hollow plastic dowel and made a u shaped handle out of fondant.

If you're not comfortable with fondant, you can easily skip that part. Just use BC to decorate the cake.