A friend of mine asked me to make the cake attached. How best should I made the shape, just carve an oval cake? Also how do you think they drew the design on. I am thinking reverse the photo and use piping gel for the outline and then color. And on the coloring how did they make the icing so smooth? I am thinking very thin butter cream that is kind of flooded in the outline.

So I am even close to making this cake with my ideas?

TIA

Google the Gators logo (www.photobucket.com) and there are some pictures identical to this cake. I think you are on the right track about flooding in the icing color and smoothing with a spatula. I would carve using a large oval pan and one of the photos (maybe enlarged) as a guide. You could prick the outlines/details of the photo with a toothpick, outline in royal icing and flood the colors inside.