Army Theme Tank Birthday Cake

Today is my son's birthday (1-11-11) and he wanted his party to have an Army theme.  This is his cake that I made that we get to eat later today.  I think it turned out pretty dang cute.  It was fairly easy to create....here is how I did it:

When you start of making a cake, you ALWAYS want to use some frosting as "glue" to adhere the cake to your cake board.  That way it doesn't slide around in transit.

Place a rectangle cake on the board, again layer some frosting on top of that cake and adhere a cake baked in a loaf pan on top.

This is your base for your Army tank.  You can see it taking shape!

Next, mix some frosting.  I ALWAYS use the frosting recipe I posted HERE.  Thin it down (with milk) to a pourable consistency and color green. (I used Leaf Green and Spongebob Brown to get this color)  Pour on the top cake, then spread the frosting all over both cakes.

Next you need your accent pieces.  Thin mint wanna-be's and black or chocolate licorice. (I tried to find chocolate, but didn't find any, so I got these black ones at the dollar store for a buck.) (YUCK...but hey, we can just pick them off before we eat the cake.)

Thin Mints are the wheels, and cut the licorice for the tread....

 

 I used this Lego piece (I have no idea what it was from, I found it in my other sons stash) for the gun.  I was going to frost a pretzel rod with chocolate frosting if I couldn't find some something else. I cut a hole in the front of the cake, inserted the "gun" and secured it with a bamboo skewer.  (the Lego had a hole all the way through it)

 I used some brown sugar around the base for "sand".  I intentionally left the excess green frosting on the board so the brown sugar would have something to stick to.

My son and I then raided his army guy stash and used a little frosting to stick them on the board.

I thought about adding a GI Joe guy sticking out of the top, but it wouldn't look to scale, so I opted not to.

So there it is, an Army theme cake...."Now you know.....and knowing is half the battle!"
(sorry, I couldn't resist) :)