Practice Makes Perfect!

After hooooours of trying out my ideas for The Wizard of Oz cake... most of them didn't turn out... but hey, that's what practicing is for!

The red velvet cake:
The recipe was not compatible.  Unfortunately, the recipe did not work out.  The final product was way to dense and heavy, and the American taste is a little to sweet for the German people.  I have to say that most American recipes don't work out in Germany... our measuring standards are different and some of the ingredients just don't match up.

The spun sugar:
This was tried out yesterday...  The first time, we didn't have very much success.  The second time, we had a lot more success and I actually think it would be possible... however, I was pretty much shut down by my co-workers in the bakery in that it's "too complicated" and "would take too long."  Which may be true for this particular case, but it is certainly a technique that I would like to try again soon.

At this point, the cake will have a stripe of yellow as the "yellow brick road" and the rest, as well as the plate the cake sits on, green... like grass.  On top, will be the twister, made of chocolate, coming out of the top of the cake, along with a small house with the witches legs sticking out from underneath.  I will make the characters to be placed off to the side of the cake, and the cake will be surrounded with lots of small flowers (Poppys).  Lastly, I will use the phrase, "There's no place like home," piped out as a banner... because, let's face it, there really is no place like home!

Update:
Scratch that...
Here's the thing, when I'm not completely happy with something that I'm making... I get weird... weird is the wrong word... annoyed?  Yea okay... I don't want to do something half way... And I always try to do something original.
The red velvet didn't work out, the sugar twister-like contraption didn't work out, the chocolate around the edge didn't work out... My original thought process for the cake... didn't work out... It would have been totally original... no one else would have cooked sugar... and no one else would have baked a red velvet cake.
Okay, so now what?  I won't be modeling the characters.  I want to dedicate a little more time to the smaller details... AKA the bricks on the road.... the the ruby slippers and so on...
It'll work...