Tyler's Birthday Cake

I was so excited with Melanie asked me to make a birthday cake for Tyler. I searched all over the Internet for ideas, and then combined three of my favorites to come up with my cake.

Melanie and I decided it would be fun to make the inside of the cake camo. So I started with a white cake mix and divided it into 4 bowls. I then colored each bowl a different color: tan, brown, green and black.

I coated my pan with Wilton cake release (BEST stuff EVER!) and dropped the colors in, one at a time, rotating around to create a messy camo pattern. When the entire bottom of the pan was covered, I still had quite a bit of batter left. So I went over each color and built it up with the same color.

This is what my pan looked like before I put it in the oven.

I almost couldn't decorate it, it looked so cool!

We decided to do an outdoor scene. I thought it would look cool if I built a hill. So I cooked one regular sized cake and then 2 square cakes. I used the square cakes to get my hill.

I tried to keep it simple. A pond in one corner and then a river over part of it. After I had finished those, I was worried I didn't have room to write "Happy Birthday Tyler," but I was able to get it in.

I loved how the river flowed off the side of the cake. It also started to flow off the board, so I had to divert it. The pond also spilled down the side of the cake a little. Josh said you could tell we had a great water year when even cake ponds are overflowing. :p

Melanie found a moose toy. We didn't put him until right when we lit the candles. I didn't want him falling over and destroying my hard work. I also had to refill the pond in a few spots because a little boy found his cake early and decided to help himself. After all, it was his birthday. He should be able to have his cake and eat it too.

The inside didn't look quite how I pictured it, but it was still pretty cool.