I just received a request for a cake and am feeling overwhelmed with
the things the customer wants on the cake. The cake is for father and daughter who are graduating from college next weekend. The customer would like to incorporate in the caps and gowns, books, horses, fishing, beach/river, tropical drinks, etc...

Any suggestions on how to streamline this would be greatly appreciated!!

it may be a far stretch and a lot of work... but you could do an entire scene with gumpaste/fondant figurines. Have one graduate riding a horse on the beach and the other graduate fishing into the ocean.. there can be little beach chairs and towels set up with a small table with tropical drinks sitting on it... does that incorporate everything they are looking for?

Thanks for the idea! I totally appreciate you taking the time to offer any help. Wish me luck!!

Make a stack of books as your base cakes. The title of each book could represent some of these themes..."The Big Book of Horses" "Bo's Fishing Guide" "Guide tot he Tropics" etc. Then you could have gumpaste figures of the father & daughter in their grad caps, standing on the books, toasting each other with tropical drinks...or something to that effect. But the main idea is to use up most of these "sub themes" in the book titles, so you don't have to clutter up the design with them. and books are certainly graduation themed. Maybe throw in some books related to their degrees as well.

Thanks for that idea! I appreciate your thoughts too!!