Fooling Folks with Fondant Foodstuffs

"Is that really a fruitbasket?"  No, why would I ever put grapes, tomatos, and bananas on top of a cake?!  I had so much fun with these cakes, it was almost like being back in fifth grade art class working with sculpey clay.  I placed some real fruit next to the cake for comparison.

To learn how to create this basketweave look, check out this tutorial.

This fruitbasket cake was requested by Hilari for a vegan "Meat-Out" party.

Aside from the basics of using fondant that I mentioned in the previous post, the best advice I can offer for creating cakes like these are to pretend that the fondant is clay.  Knead it until it is soft and pliable, create the shapes you want and set them aside to dry slightly if necessary before attaching them to cake.  I typically used either water or buttercream to adhere the fondant to the cakes.  Regarding the shape of the cake, I just cut and pieced together various cake pieces to create the right shape for each cake.

I mixed tan and brown fondant together for a marbled, wood-like effect on the side of this drum.  The Vic Firth sticks are also fondant, which I set aside to dry and harden for a bit after forming them, so that they would not bend.

This was for my nephew's 3rd birthday.  It is difficult to see, but I used a silver shimmer dust powder to give the windows and other silver accents a shiny look.  The chest logo and 3 were drawn on with an edible ink marker.

This cake was inspired by my father's 1968 Shelby Mustang that he's had since before I was born.  Everything that you can see, from the windshield wipers to the wheels, are made from fondant.

I cut this cake to size, covered it in pink fondant, and then attached those towers (ice cream cones covered in fondant!)  This was for my niece's birthday back in 2009, and she thought it was an actual toy when she first saw it, so I considered it a success!  The flags are just toothpicks with paper attached, not edible.