I have a cake due for a volunteer firefighter who is 16. The only request is that flames are incorporated into the design somehow. Any ideas of how to make flames? I don't know if I should use fondant or buttercream and what tip to use for buttercream or how to make fondant flames! This one has me stumped!
Thanks in advance....I have asked my cake decorating friends and they have no help for me so I turn to all of you.

I was going to say that pulled sugar flames would look great, but I don't know how experienced you are,
so if you were going to do buttercream flames I say use red, yellow and orange buttercream, and pipe it with a leaf tip, you can see the effect on this wilton chart,
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=wilton+piping+tips&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=677&tbm=isch&tbnid=LGkE6k4ES44sCM:&imgrefurl=http://www.cakedecoratingtips.writetopics.com/&docid=T487T3qitNm7uM&imgurl=http://www.cakedecoratingtips.writetopics.com/images/wiltonmastertips.jpg&w=710&h=519&ei=bjKkT5_hNMSK8gO3tqSZCQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=433&sig=106517002327523157513&page=1&tbnh=133&tbnw=182&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:74&tx=137&ty=31

Or if you were going to use fondant, make the fondant like a loose "tie dye" colour of red, yellow and orange and cut flame shapes out of it.

HTH

There are many ways you can incorporate flames into your cake. They can be a stand up flame or around the sides of your cake (like if you were making round layers). I recently made some flames by cutting out flame shapes from Fruit Roll-Ups. Not the solid red ones, but when you look at the dizzying array of different kinds in the store. there's like a red tie-dye or red fiesta name. It's a red and orange mix which is perfect for flames! And highly edible! They will adhere perfectly to buttercream and I'm sure you could put a drop of water on fondant if you were using fondant to stick the flame.

Also if you put any candles in the cake, push them in deep (or within some other element of your cake) so when they are lit it all you will see is the fire!

Theresa

I have made a few cakes with flames, my husband is a firefighter. Here are the links to mine. HTH

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1654741/let-it-burn

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1626419/32-years-of-service-earns-you-a-lifetime-of-corona-on-the-beach

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1973651/coming-full-circle

I have also made them out of melted Jolly Ranchers, but I haven't uploaded that picture yet.

Tho I have made at least half a dozen of them I can only find this one in my gallery.
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1325442/fireman-sheet-idea
I put orange, red, and yellow b'cream icing in one bag w/a big leaf tip (68 maybe?) and just make pull up stripes of icing aorund the sides of the cake.