UNC Tarheels 40th Birthday cake

This is  3-tier cake, 10-inch square, 8-inch square, and hat carved from a 6-inch round.  I had never made a ball-cap cake before this, so I studied lots of photographs of similar cakes before ever starting.  It really wasn't difficult... the hardest part was tracing the stitches onto the brim... it is very difficult to draw 6 evenly spaced lines in a semi-circle (look at a ball cap to see what I mean... I neglected to take a close-up photo of this brim).  To read how I made this cake, click below:
The 10-inch cake on the bottom is a 2-layer square covered in white fondant.  The "NC" logo was made by printing the design on the computer in the size I needed (roughly 3x3 inches) and cutting it out.  I rolled out some Carolina blue fondant and dusted it with cornstarch to prevent sticking and laid the design on top.  I carefully cut it out with a sharp knife.  Center it in the front of the tier and attach it by brushing the back of it lightly with water.  The feet / tarheels were made with a custom fondant cutter.  I have made several custom cutters whenever I needed a specific shape and didn't have a cutter for it.  It isn't hard to do if you have an unused metal cookie cutter, wire cutters a hammer and needle-nose pliers.  I raided my husband's toolbox a long time ago... these items all stay in my kitchen now :).  I used a mini cookie cutter to make the foot.  I think it originally came in a set of mini-Christmas cookie cutters that had become misshapen over time.  I used the needle nose pliers to reshape the cutter into a foot shape, using a print-out of the UNC Tarheel as a guide.  I cut out lots of these in Carolina Blue and attached them to the cake using water.  The toes were piped on in Carolina blue buttercream icing (a lot faster than cutting out that many fondant circles.. but tricky to match the blues exactly).

The middle tier is an 8-inch square covered in Carolina blue fondant.  I cut a template in paper exactly the same size as one side of this tier, so I could plan out how large the diamonds needed to be to create the argyle pattern on the sides.  I drew and cut out on paper a diamond the right size to fit two on each side of the cake.  I cut these out in navy fondant and attached them carefully to the sides of the cake with water.  I used my diamond template to trace the alternating diamond pattern (shown in white) on the cake with a tracing wheel (yep, the kind you would find in a sewing kit!).  The white pattern that alternates with the navy diamonds was piped on in white buttercream icing.  I cut out the navy fondant "40" and attached it with water.

The top tier is the ball-cap.  I was crazy nervous about trying this one!!  BUT, turns out it wasn't that hard to do.  I baked a 6-inch, 2" tall round and half of a sports ball pan, frosted the top of the round and stacked the half-ball on top.  I carved some random notches out on the sides and back to look like folds in the cap (the way a cap looks when it is sitting on a table).  I left the front of the cap intact.  I frosted it in buttercream and covered it in white fondant, carefully pressing the fondant into the carved out areas so they would show.  I very carefully trimmed the bottom edges, as I didn't want to have to put a border of any kind around the bottom.  I wanted it to look as much like a real hat as possible.  I very carefully added "stitches" across the cap using a tracing wheel ... the hat appeared to be in 6 sections afterward (see a real cap for what I mean... difficult to describe in words).  I cut 6 Carolina blue circles using the end of tip #12, then cut a circle out of the center of each one using tip #5 (one circle -- or ventilation hole-- for each section of the hat).  I centered these near the top of each section, using a real cap as a guide for placement, and attached each with a little water.  I cut a thick circle of Carolina blue fondant  using the wide end of a regular size tip and rounded it gently with my hands, and used this as the button on the top of the cake.  I added this after placing the center dowel through the tiers... this hides the end of the dowel perfectly :).  The UNC on the cap was cut out just the way the "NC" was for the bottom tier.  The brim of the hat MUST be made at least one week in advance in order for it to dry and hold its shape (more time would be preferable, but I did it one week out and it worked fine... of course the weather is a factor and if it rains or is humid it will take longer for the fondant to dry).  I used a real cap as a guide and cut a general brim-shape out of paper, then used the paper template to cut it out of fondant.  I traced the 6 evenly spaced stitch lines onto the fondant brim while it was flat on the counter (this is very very difficult to do, but adds a lot of character to the cap).  I then laid the fondant brim on a paper towel, then over a real ball-cap brim ... the perfect place for it to dry into it's proper shape :)--- I did turn the cap and brim once a day so the bottom and top would dry evenly... simply remove the fondant brim, turn the cap upside down and lay the fondant brim bottom side up on the brim of the real cap.  The brim was added to the cake lastly.  I did place it temporarily on the cake to ensure that it fit, and to mark its place.  I removed it and added a roll of fondant on the cap directly under the place the brim would sit, in order to hold it up and hold it in place.  I then brushed some water where the brim would meet the cap and placed it gently on the cake and held it in place to set.  I think that's all... if you want to try it and have questions, just email me :)  I will try to help you.