I'm plan to make my first carved cake in a week for my neighbor's birthday. He really likes fishing and I've been wanting to try carved cakes for a while. Is a fish a good shape to start with? And I want it to look good, so I'm hoping to get all the tips I can from you kinda and helpful people here at CC. 
I want it to look like a yellow-finned tuna.
I need tips on:
- how to carve a cake
what size pans to use
what kind of filling, if any, to use
and anything else that a newbie might need to know to carve a successful cake
TIA!
how can i make it look like this? 
I did a fish cake for a grooms cake. It depends on how big you want the fish to be. I cut mine out of an 11x15 then I used the cut off parts on top of the body and carved until I got the shape I liked. I didn't use a filling. I think that would make it hard to work with. After I cut the shape I frosted it with butter cream and then covered in fondant. Then I painted it with luster dust. Hope that helps! Picture is too big to post, but you can click on my photos and it's at the bottom.
I made a Nemo cake for my son's 2nd bday. I used the football pan for the body, like dodibug mentioned. I'll see if I can attach a pic of it here. I'm not sure the body would be as long and thin asthe fish you're looking to do, but....
I was unable to attach the picture here, but if you look in my photos, I have uploaded it there!! 
well...since i don't have a football pan, i thought i could use my wondermold pan that i got for chrismas and cut it in half vertically, put the two big ends together to get the oval shape. unfortunately, the cake didn't even get onto the cooling rack 
my first time using the wonder mold pan. instuctions that came in the box said 2 cake mixes. i put in two, it looked like a lot, but i put it in the over anyways. and then disastar struck. thank goodness i put a cookie sheet under the wonder mold pan. i'm pretty sure like 1/2 the batter overflowed while baking! 
then when i tried to unmold it i found out that the center was still runny. 
so i ended up saving what i could and eating it for breakfast this morning 
and throwing the rest away 
i think i might try it again tonight using just one cake mix.
if it still doesn't work......i guess i'll bake a trusty 9"x13" and try my luck at cake carving 
wish me luck!
Sorry your first attempt didn't work out, hopefully the next will. Why can't you take your orignal photo to an enlarging place, have it enlarged to the size you want, glue it to bristol board and lay it on the cake to carve around??? I am VERY new to cake baking and decorating, there may be a reason why you can't do that, I don't know. It's just a thought.
By the way...that silver fish looks incredible!!!!
I have made fish before and used the head and tail of a Wilton pan and then carved the center of the body from a sheet cake. Mine was 3 feet long so I cut is in half and carved it from there. Good Luck! You have a great picture to use!
She starts in the lower left hand corner of the cake (for the head) and cuts along diagonally on the cake so she ends up in the upper right hand corner of the cake.Am I making sense. I can scan the instructions and send them to your email if you want.
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