Well I made this luau cake this last weekend and then I uploaded it to the site at about midnight so I don't think many people saw it and I was really hoping for some feedback. So I would love to hear what you guys think of it and any critiques on how to make it better.
The cake design was inspired by subaru's Hawaiian themed cake, Thanks Subaru! It is a 12-inch and 8-inch round covered in blue buttercream. Grass tip used to creat the grass skirt effect. Piping gel used for water on each tier and board and graham crackers used for sand on top tier. I addedd royal icing flowers, they are supposed to look like hybiscus. the seashells are white chocoalte painted with gold luster. The palm trees are pretzel stick rods with gumpaste leaves and royal icing coconuts.
Thanks for any comments good and bad welcome!
That is gorgeous!!! I just made a luau cake two weeks ago, and I sure could have used some of your creativity. You did an amazing job and the flowers are incredibly lovely! Nice Work!!
I love it! You did an excellent job. It looks like a lot of detail, was this a hard cake to do?
I love it! You did an excellent job. It looks like a lot of detail, was this a hard cake to do?
Thanks for the compliment. I actually didn't think it was that hard. I made all the flowers in royal icing a few days ahead and made the seashells using a mold ahead as well. The palm trees were the hardest part in my opinion. It took a lot of royal icing to get them to stay in place. I ended up adding the coconuts as a way to cover all the oozing royal icing. As for the grass skirt, it was one of the easiest cake decorations ever! The cake didn't even have to be smoothed because it was completely covered. I just took the grass tip and piped stright down all the way around the cake.
Really a nice design 
The thin grass skirt part, to me, looks like a mini-bamboo mat wrapped around the layers - maybe it's the photo - but I think it's a great element!
When I saw your flowers, I immediately thought "hibiscus", how tropical. Love the vibrant colors.
Shells are great.
Beach scene with coconut trees, sand and surf is TOTALLY COOL!!
What can I say - You Rock
Thanks for taking the time to comment everyone! I am so glad you guys liked it!
Well I made this luau cake this last weekend and then I uploaded it to the site at about midnight so I don't think many people saw it and I was really hoping for some feedback. So I would love to hear what you guys think of it and any critiques on how to make it better.
...
Thanks for any comments good and bad welcome!
You really did a nice job!
Okay, I'll play "Devil's Advocate" 
for you. Here are some suggestions for "next time", but I am going to tell you up front, they're really on the nit-picky side:
1.) Darker green leaves on the palm trees, or even a couple of different greens. Grass and leaves are more than just one color/hue. And try to make some of the leaves stand more upright and/or have some of the "fringe" rolling back on itself ... movement = life = interest.
2.) Vary the color of your sand ... don't just use graham crackers, but add some brown sugar and maybe even some raw sugar, laying them in "banks" next to each other, not necessarily all mixed together ... different grains, different colors, they all add to a more life-like cake.
3.) Make your "grass skirt" a couple of different colors, and don't just have it hang straight ... vary it a little by putting some "angle" in it, as if the wind is blowing ... as you come to the bottom of a tier, roll your hand to one side and take the "grass" with you ... do this for a couple of side-by-side pipings, and it will give a little appearance as if the bottom edge of the skirt is blowing over onto itself a little. More movement = more realism.
Like I said, these are really nit-picky suggestions. I personally think you did a great job on this cake. It's very nicely done and you should be proud of it! 
aobodessa - thank you so much for your input, that is exactly what I was looking for! I love your ideas! The different textured sand is a great tip as well as the other tips! I will definitely use these tips in the future!
Glad I could help, euphoria! Truly, I LIKE the cake as it is, but I am just in a real nit-picky frame of mind today ... like, I could be the bitchy judge in a cake competition who takes it all away for ONE little almost-tear in the fondant, or a tiny mis-step on joining a border back to it's start. 
AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! 
I LOVE that cake!!! How did you do the hybiscus out of royal icing??? They look amazing! So does the whole cake!! I love the idea of the grass skirt around each layer I NEVER would have thought of that!! Great job!!
Thanks so much! The hybiscus was done very simular to how a petunia is made. Using a 104 tip instead of 103 and making the petals come slightly farther out over the edge of the lily nail to give it bigger petals. then I took a dampened paint brush and pulled the icing in to fill any gaps in the center of each petal and the center of the flower. Last I placed a pistol in the center. Thanks again!
I LOVE IT!!! The grass skirt is perfect, it really looks like a grass skirt. Also, your flowers are absolutly beautiful! Great Job.
I've uploaded pic's late at night also and you just don't seem to get much feedback then. Maybe I'll start waiting to upload during the day.
Glad you shared it with those of us who missed it, it's a great cake!
Love your cake think it is Perfect. Can you use soap molds for sea shells to? I don't mean use soap but sometimes you see the soap molds that look like seashells and they are like 1/2 the price
Hmm? I don't know. I don't see why not. Just make sure they are food safe and haven't been used for soaps.
Euphoria,
Your cake looks great and I LOVE the hibiscuses, hibisci-argg!what's the plural of hibiscus?!!
Can't wait to try them myself.
wgoat5,
I used the shell soap molds this weekend.. I did sugar molds with it and it worked great!
*note* keep them hidden from your 86yr old grandfather 
After the shells had already hardened, my grandfather came by to bring me homemade jelly -wasn't that sweet. Anyway, he picked one up, tried to take a bite and said "this is so hard ya can't even bite it". I just laughed and tried to explain that you're not supposed to eat it even tho its just sugar. Btw, this was AFTER he'd poked his finger in the spider cake -he thought it was one of those bristle things you wipe your feet off with. 
Good thing the spider cake was for my son and not a customer!!
Amy
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