Hunting cake

I had a request for a HUNTING cake. Nothing came to mind. Nothing.

I googled for ideas and still, I couldn't find something I wanted to make that I didn't think was tacky or take a ridiculous amount of time.
It seemed most cakes out there for this theme of cake, had plastic figures on them. That's just not my thing.
I even said to Cam "I've never put plastic on my cakes and nor do I ever plan to..."
and Cam corrected me by saying "yes you have."
and of course, my response was, "What? No. When have I ever?"
"When you made some of those barbie type of cakes."
Oh. Okay, I did. But, that was a LONG time ago.
But, I don't plan to do it again and it's making me frustrated with thinking of a hunting themed cake. It really shouldn't be so difficult.
I could sculpt some deer, but I was afraid it would look kid-like and childish and that just wasn't going to do. What to do.... what to do??

So, finally, some inspiration comes to me yesterday.
I made a sketch....


This is one time, I'm really wishing I had an airbrush. Fern, are you reading this?? You see, my sister Fern, she's got an airbrush, but she was out or just simply not answering my calls today. Anyways, I thought this cake would have been fantastic if I could have some how had a sunset in the background. But, I had to make do with what I had and instead I opted to just marble my fondant with blue, purple and gray.
I then hand painted the trees and grass with black food coloring. My first time predominately painting something onto a cake. It turned out good. I was actually quite happy to have a paintbrush in my hand. It's been forever since I've truly painted something. I think I might have to start doing that again....
Anyways, after doing all my hand painting, I then hand cut out several deer silhouettes. This is one time that I WISH I had a Cake Cricut that could do that for me. But, I don't, so I did it by hand. (a note to self... it's probably faster to have just painted it like I did the trees, but the little dimension added by the fondant silhouette deer is a good thing)
The cake turned out fantastic. I loved how it turned out in the end and it looks just like what I pictured in my head and sketched on the paper....



So, one cake down, one more to finish before tomorrow evening.


Oh.... here's the completely finished cake now that I've added the piping.....