Live and Learn; Borrow and Steal: Paradise Island Birthday Cake

Two years ago I decided to go out on a limb and this is what appeared. I have a magazine rack in my bathroom...and since I don't subscribe to any magazines the only ones that are there have been "gifted" by friends/family and will stay in place basically until the fall apart. (by gifted I mean either hand me down mags or stolen from their coffee tables ;-) ) Any whoooo....I digress.

This one magazine I kept around because the cover was a super cute cake in the form of an island. It looked so fun, but I thought it was WAY out of my league. Well when my oldest daughter turned 8 she wanted a luau party so out came the mag and I used it for my inspiration. With some help from my SIL Serena I was able to finish the cake which if I do say so my self came out super cute!

This is acutally bigger than the cake in the mag, but oh well. I used TWO yellow cake mixes in rectangle pans to get it deep enough on the sides. The frosting is tinted tan on the top and blue for the sides. The "sand" is just crushed up Nilla cookies. The sides have green fruit roll up sea weed and goldfish crackers. I added white frosting bubbles on the sides for cuteness...and black frosting dots for the eyes, there might be some gummy fish on there too. There are some Teddy graham beach combers (with frosting bathing suits) The pool is jello (a highly concentrated mixture). The palm trees are my FAVORITE part! The mag used pretzels, but I decided it would be yummier to use piroutte cookies. Plus the cookies have a cool wrap around detail that adds authenticity. The leaves on the trees are made with green melting candy put in a baggy. Cut the corner of the baggy off and squeeze and draw a leafy shape on some wax paper. Let harden and attach with more melting chocolate. The palm trees have a variety of things attached...cocopuffs for coconuts, then little fruits like bananas and oranges that are candy.