I have a friend whose husband is a tobacco farmer and she wants me to make a tobacco leaf cake...she recently was at a party where I made a large flip flop cake so I am assuming she wants one big leaf....any ideas to make it more creative than just carving the shape and covering it? something to make it stand out more...?

I was thinking on being more creative I could make the whole plant and maybe the cake part be the base but Im not sure how to actually do that? Any other creative ideas?

Wow, that is a tough one. How do you think she would react to the suggestion of doing a scenery cake instead? Don't get me wrong, tobacco farms are beautiful, but I can see how you would be at a creative loss for doing a sculpted cake in the shape of a tobacco leaf. Seems like it might look a little nicer if you could do maybe a field of tobacco and a tractor instead.

Seems like I found this link here on CC some time ago for making trees, wonder if you couldn't use the same idea to make a field of tobacco?
http://artisancakecompany.com/2009/10/how-to-make-edible-trees/

Funny you are asking this as I saw an episode of cupcake wars last weekend where one baker actually made tobacco flavored cupcakes - I think she used cinnamon and coffee in the frosting. Duff was one of the judges and he kinda went 'I'm not a smoker so gag!' but they used actual cigarettes so I could understand the yuck factor. But then I got thinking about using the actual plant instead? I don't any design suggestions off the top if my head but maybe that's food for thought (pun intended lol)

How about draping a giant fondant tobacco leaf over a couple of tiers?

Before farmers started putting tobacco into bales for sale, farmers tied it into bundles called "hands". Now that would be the cured, brown tobacco, so I'm not sure if that's the look you might want, but if he is an older tobacco farmer, he might appreciate the symbolism.
Here is a link to what a "hand" looks like:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piedmont_fossil/4773042844/

I'm not a smoker but I live in tobacco country and it plays a large in most families history here. I love the look of the tobacco hands (some still hang them in their tobacco barns) so a stylized hand covering a cake would be fantastic. There's a lady out of Minnesota who sells primitives on line. Check out her "hand" style at
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lMxvpf2PVbg/Teg9suUDu8I/AAAAAAAAD7o/HKXqI6_gwPA/s1600/Tabacco%2BLeaves.jpg

I could imagine carving a tall cake into a cone shape and laying fondant leaves that are gathered at the top and draped down the sides of the cake.

Whatever you decide, please post your cake pics. I'm sure it will be wonderful

Thank you, thank you...such great ideas...you all are awesome.... I was thinking the tobacco hands but maybe on a smaller scale because I think it is just for a couple of people. I will post what I end up doing...thanks again bunches.