I hope someone can give me some inspiration. I have an order for a man's 70th birthday this Saturday (see the urgency?) and his wife is dying to finally surprise him for the first time in 46 years! A friend gave her my name, and she is praying for a miracle. I think we've got the surprise part worked out, but here is what she has told me about Joe Ed (yes, he goes by 2 first names), other than he likes chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.

He is a retired general surgeon, moved from the city to the country, has a blue tractor, enjoys gardening tomatoes and squash, grows fruit trees from seed; lemon, pear and peach to be exact, likes anything electrical, and has three ponds on the property.

Now considering the cake is starting out all brown, where do I go from here? I am having such a hard time getting motivated and excited about this order... know what I mean? I don't feel I give 110% if I can't be excited about the cake.

Any ideas at all? Thanks in advance.

Don't know how detailed you want to be, but you could do a city scene transitioning into a country scene...going from one life to another. Just an idea. The details are complete opposites. Good Luck!

Don't know how detailed you want to be, but you could do a city scene transitioning into a country scene...going from one life to another. Just an idea. The details are complete opposites. Good Luck!

If you cover the cake in fondant, you don't have to start with all brown!

How about making a 3 tier cake (covered in fondant) and having each tier cover a different aspect of his life.

How about making a 3 tier cake (covered in fondant) and having each tier cover a different aspect of his life. did'nt mean to enter this twice.....sorry

Hi,

What about making it a two tiered cake that looks like it has a road winding around it? Then you could incorporate all of the things he loves around the sides (kind of like a journey of his life). I've seen those cakes on here before (I think usually for retirements) and they are a really nice way of including so many different parts of the person's life.

HTH,
Valerie.

(if you search "road of life" you will see what I meant)

I was thinking of something very similiar. A two or three tier cake covered in fondant with the birthday boy sitting on his tractor starting at the bottom and working his way up the cake on a 'road'. Along the road you can put milestones like "Medical School" and "Marriage" etc. At the top have the number 70 in big bold numbers.

To me starting w/ brown would be ideal. Brown = dirt. The top could be his tilled garden w/ his blue tractor right there.

How big is the cake? 1,2, 3 tiers?

1 I would do that on top & have trees on the sides. Maybe a pond on top & two on the board, along w/ him either planting seeds at a work bench or working on something electrical. Even a city silhouette on the back

2 tiers I would do the top, trees between the layers & maybe a couple on the bottom. Same w/ the ponds & figure.

3 tiers. Bottom city silhouettes, middle trees (maybe a couple bags of seed by them) Ponds between the middle & top tier. Top tier maybe him working on the tractor at the garden site.

Was he a surgeon in the armed forces? You can make gumpaste tools & lay them on the board.

Hope your juices are flowing