My son wanted a dinosaur and volcano cake for his third birthday. The base is a rectangular cake iced with brown icing that had cookies broken up in it to make it look like dirt. The dinosaurs are molded from caramel then dipped in tinted candy melts.
The volcano is made from chocolate rice krispie treats. The lava is red, orange and yellow icing. The lava exploding are melted jolly ranchers that then are piped onto tinfoil to harden. I then placed them in the volcano.
The palm tree trunk is from tootsie rolls, the coconuts are caramel, and the leaves are green candy melts piped onto wax paper. I laid them on a rolling pin so that they would curve. Then adhered them to the tree with melted candy and some toothpicks.
Everything on the cake is edible and hand made.
Your ideas are great and I loved your use of caramels, tootsie rolls, etc. instead of using the usual fondant. Nice cake!
I love the dinosaur. I just wanted to eat him right up!