Making Alex's John Deere Cake

I had so much fun creating Alex's request for a John Deere "Big Rock Candy Mountain" cake for his 4th birthday. I only had my own ideas to work with and I was really happy with the way it turned out.

Well...let me specify that last statement. I'm really happy with the way Alex responded to his cake. :) He was SO excited for it and kept taking peeks at in while it was in the fridge.

Anyway, here's the process, step by step.

I started with a small sheet cake and a 6 in. round cake. I didn't have enough green or yellow fondant to do a solid color on the sheet cake so I thought of doing the stripes. Nothing says "John Deere" like yellow and green! Of course, you can't put on the fondant until you put on a layer of butter cream icing.

Then I went at the 6 inch cake with a bread knife. I wanted to cut down the sides to make it look more like a big hill or "mountain" instead of a perfect circle. On that, I put chunks of brown fondant on the side to give it a really earthy, dirty look. Green fondant topped it off to make the grass where the dum-dum suckers grow. :)

 I used the alphabet and numbers cookie cutters we had to cut out the words "Alex is 4".

And to complete the "Big rock candy mountain" feel, I bought a pack of John Deere vehicles to place on the cake. I filled the trailer of the tractor with green and yellow M&M's and filled the back of the gator with green and yellow jelly beans. 

On top of the mountain, I also placed the candy around the bottom of the suckers.

 When it was done, I placed it in the fridge, and enjoyed snacking on the scraps of fondant left over. Yum.

And there you have it. Lots of fondant, a few toys, some candy, and a 4 year old's idea for a cake is all you need to make your own. ;)