Ok, so my SIL says "do whatever you want!" -AAAAHHHH! There will be brownies and a carrot cake there already, but they love my cake and wanted me to make something small (only like 30 people there and already have the other desserts). I already know what flavors, and I'm planning on covering it in milk chocolate modeling chocolate because he HATES fondant (even mine, which is delicious BTW). His favorite color is red, and he likes brown - which is good since it will be COVERED IN BROWN lol! It seems like Valentine's colors though, so I'm trying to keep away from it looking like it is for Valentine's day!

I had thought about a gift box, but it is hard to make even those masculine, and still it would be kind of a Valentine's look because of the brown and red. Any ideas? I just can't think! I have come up with some cool designs before, but I'm having trouble right now, especially with it being for a guy.

Brown, blue and green look good together. Does he gave a favorite pair of shoes-you could make a shoe box. If not there are tons of awesome looking square cakes with stripes (various widths). I'm on my phone or I would post some links. Or your could do chocolate wraps. My dh doesn't like chocolate but liked the wrap I did on a cake for him

If you like the gift box look, why not make it an exploding gift box? Here's a cake similar to what I'm thinking:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1517037

Except that I prefer it in the shape of a square. Also, you could make a 30 exploding out in the middle of the stars. If you have the Planet Cake book, they have a fabulous one in there that I think looks very masculine.

Does he have any hobbies you could incorporate onto the cake; hunting, fishing, football etc?

For my husband's 30th birthday I did a muskie fish and a camping scene.
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1528249

Well, this was kind of last minute - it is for tonight - I don't think I have time to dry a "30" or stars to explode out of the cake, but that is a cool idea though! I do not have the Planet Cake book, I don't buy many books - my cakes & extra tools/supplies tend to cost me so much I don't usually have any left over to buy books .

He loves to golf, but again, I don't have any fondant/gumpaste made, just white & brown modeling chocolate. I was going to tint the white or paint it to do the red, but I don't think I have enough to do figures AND decorations.

A shoe box is cool, but again, not enough time to make something that elaborate - I could do a basic box, but no time for shoes.

I baked the cakes and made all the filling already - 2 8" squares. I thought about argyle, but not sure if I should make it look like a gift box, or just a decorated square cake. And I can't decide what to do on the top either.

Search for argyle in the galleries b/c I found some this afternoon while trying to come up w/ a generic idea for dh's non-surprise bday cake. You could make golf balls out of cake truffles to put on top & maybe a couple around the bottom. If you don't want to dip them you could cover in modeling chocolate or a crusting buttercream & use a small fondant ball tool to make indentions. If you don't have one look around the kitchen, pantry, drawers etc to look for something to make indentions (like a lollipop stick or chopstick etc).

Thanks guys! I made an argyle pattern with tinted red modeling chocolate, and covered the top with the red modeling chocolate too. I kept it simple since I didn't have tons of time. No time for truffles - that was a great idea for golf balls! I would have totally done that if I had more time! We ended up having to go earlier than planned due to resorting to "Plan C" to get him out of the house! LOL It was a hit and totally up his alley. It wasn't perfect, I have one diamond cutter - not perfect for the scale, but it worked. I didn't measure, just eyed it. I will post pics once I have a chance to hook up my camera to the computer - it's a pain!

You guys are awesome - thank you very much for all your input!