A camouflage cake makes a fitting dessert for a party with an Army or hunting theme. The traditional colors for camouflage are earthy greens and browns, but you can adjust the colors to match the party decorations. Frosting tinted with food coloring in at least three different colors creates the camo look on the outside of the cake. For more of a camouflage effect, tint the cake batter with food coloring and swirl to make the cake itself look camouflage.
Cake
Divide the prepared yellow cake batter into three separate bowls. Add a few drops of leaf-green food coloring to one bowl and brown food coloring to another bowl. Stir the cake batter to mix the food coloring evenly throughout.
Cover the cake pan with a thin layer of shortening. Sprinkle flour over the shortening. Shake the pan so the flour covers the shortening completely.
Spread the yellow cake batter without any food coloring in the pan. Drop spoonfuls of the brown and green cake batter randomly on the cake.
Bake the cake according to the recipe directions. Let the camouflage cake cook for 10 minutes in the pan. Remove the camo cake to a cooling rack, allowing it to to cool completely through before frosting it.
Frosting
Divide the buttercream frosting into four separate bowls. Tint one light green, one dark green, one black and one brown. You can also tint frosting orange or varying shades of brown for more variety or to match the party decor. Stir the frosting to distribute the food coloring.
Attach round icing tips to enough pastry bags so that you have one for each color. Place the tinted frosting in the pastry bags. Reserve some of a lighter-color frosting.
Spread a thin layer of light-colored frosting over the cake as a base coat to trap the crumbs. Smooth the layer with an offset spatula.
Squeeze patches of the tinted frosting onto the cake in random patterns resembling camouflage. Fill in the middle of each color section, making sure to cover all of the cake. Continue working around the cake, piping the next section right next to the previous one to cover all of the cake's surfaces.
Let the cake rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Roll over the frosting gently with a small, high-density foam paint roller that has never been used. Move back and forth over the frosting to smooth out the lines created from the icing tips. This also helps the sections blend slightly.
Fondant
Separate the fondant into four pieces. Tint each section with a different color of food coloring, using browns, greens and black. Knead the fondant so that the coloring spreads throughout.
Spread a thin layer of buttercream icing over the cake to help hold the fondant in place. Roll out one of the light colors of fondant into an even sheet about 1/8-inch thick to serve as the base.
Roll out the remaining colors of fondant into 1/8-inch-thick sheets. Use a fondant cutter or knife to cut out patches for the camouflage. Use random, varying shapes.
Arrange the fondant pieces on top of the base piece of fondant. Place different colors next to one another, allowing some of the base color to show through.
Roll over the fondant sheet lightly to blend in the colors and hold the pieces in place. Lay the fondant sheet over the cake and smooth it lightly with your hands. Trim around the bottom to remove the excess fondant.
