It's birthday time and you want to make a cake that is unique and customized for your friend. You want him or her to say "wow that's the coolest cake I've ever received." You don't need fondant - only some normal household cake and candy products and a little bit of creativity.
Here is an example of a cake baked for a friend that is obsessed with ketchup!

What you need:
(1) cake mix
(2) computer (for research!)
(3) icing (chocolate and vanilla)
(4) food coloring
(5) ziplock freezer bags
(6) scissors
(7) jelly beans
(8) a little creativity!

Step 1: The Idea!

What is the first thing that you think of when your friend comes to mind? Is it a hobby? An obsession? Something quirky? Chances are it can be put on a cake. The simpler an idea it is, the better executed it can be.
For this cake, the idea was inspired by my friend's obsession with ketchup.

Step 2: How Do I Customize the Cake?

So I have my idea: a ketchup cake. I've already baked my cake (I usually go for chocolate or funfetti, since I will largely use colored vanilla icing to decorate).

Now I need to customize my cake for my recipient. In this case, I went to google images and typed in "Heinz." Many a ketchup bottle came up. The idea is to create a cake that looks like a heinz ketchup bottle but has language that makes sense to the recipient.
So, looking at the heinz labels I see a few key things that the cake needs to have in order to look like a ketchup bottle:
(1) the cake needs to be red
(2) the "wrapper" needs the three-toned color border.
(3) the cake needs to say heinz
(4) it needs a pickle on it.

The rest can be embellished.

(1) To get the cake to be red: mix a lot of red food coloring with vanilla icing and spread across cake. You may notice that the icing will be more of a dark pink color. Sprinkling red sugar crystals on top of the icing will help give the cake a more reddish hue.

Step 3: Incorporating Other Food Elements

(2) While you can use colored icing for the three-toned border, another texture, such as jelly beans, can be quite visually appealing. Here I have placed a layer of green jelly beans, a layer of chocolate icing, and then a layer of white jelly beans, to vary the textures. The chocolate icing was applied by scooping a few tablespoons into a ziplock freezer bag, cutting a small hole at one end, and squeezing the icing onto the cake. NOTE: freezer bags are much easier to work with than ordinary storage bags. Also note that as long as you get the general shape of the heinz wrapper, it will be recognizable.

(3) Using the chocolate icing in the ziplock bag, write HEINZ in large letters.

(4) Using extra green jelly beans, bunch a few jelly beans together to look like a pickle!

Step 4: Poking Fun

Now you need to add some final touches.
Underneath the HEINZ, the bottle usually notes the year that the company was established. Here I will replace this with the year my friend was born, using red colored icing.

More recently ketchup bottles say funny expressions on them. Perfect time to mention that it is Michele's favorite food!

Finally, at the bottom of every ketchup label is the net weight. Here I add a reference to my friend's age, since this is a birthday cake.

I also add happy birthday to the top of the cake, as a more official birthday greeting.

Step 5: The End!

So here we all, all done.
The cake is simple but well executed.
And all we needed was a little creativity!

for more cakes please see http://cakecraziness.blogspot.com/