my friend has asked me to do her mum's birthday cake (hobby baker). I sent her a few inspiration pics, and she said she would like a combination of these two... flowers and candles...

while I really like both on their own, I feel like the candles are playful/cartoony and flowers are elegant. I cannot imagine them together on the same cake in my head (obviously they don't have to be exactly the same as in the pics, but still). I don't really like cartoony flowers and I can't picture fondant candles being elegant, lol.

does anyone have any ideas as to how to incorporate these two? or do you think that kind of cake would just end up looking messy and thrown together?

I don't have much experience with decorating. thanks for any input!

use the pansy colors for the candles--black candles will be very cool and kinda goes with the sentiment on the candle cake

what would be really cool would be to have a flower catch on fire--in gumpaste i mean-- just stick a few larger flames there--bwooowahahaha

i think i'd place the pansies around the bottom borders and i think i'd reduce the size of every thing by 25 to 50% too 

mini pansies (compared to those) and skinny candles

lol @ fire flower

making everything smaller is a great idea. I can at least see skinny candles as being somewhat elegant :p

what type of flower would you go with? the pansies was just the first flower cake picture I came across, can be anything. I was thinking maybe daisies would go with candles better, although I don't really know why. also I have very little experience with making flowers, so the easier the better!

sure whatever you're comfy with is best--daisies are great

http://kimthibodeaux.blogspot.com/2008/11/fuchsia-gerbera-daisy-cake.html

and maybe use the flower stems similar to the ones in the link by that talented decorator combined with the candles up the sides