I want to make a cake similar to this one and the description on it says that the figures and decorations are gumpaste. I can figure out how to the figures but I was wondering how to do the scenery... especially the pieces that stand alone from the cake. Any help would be appreciated!

I'm really going for the gusto on this cake!

The flat ones look like sheets of gumpaste cut out and 'painted'. allowed to dry, and put in the foamboard base on picks.

Where can I get edible paint? Or I have heard that you can mix gel colors with vodka to make paint. Is this true?

Yep. Can also mix gel colors with pure extracts - lemon is great.

Vodka, lemon extract, or egg yolk (tempera paint).

Thank you so much! I will be making some practice pieces before the actual ones just to see how they turn out!

What would you do to get the hat consistency on the top of the cake? Scrape/pinch/pull out the fondant?

It looks to me as though she scored the fondant.

Wow, if those little figures are gumpaste I want to give them a big pat on the back. Those small figures like that are so hard to do.

chocmocakes does very nice work. She has a flickr page here. -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chocolatemoosecakes/

It is so precise, I would think she uses something like it.

Gotta get one of those things... Just electronically challenged....

I'm not sure how my figures will turn out but I'm going to make the attempt. I'm sure the 2 year old that will be getting this cake won't care so much because she will probably love it no matter what the characters look like!

I figure it's a success if I don't have to tell people what it's supposed to be.

My kids would flip over that cake, it's fabulous.