AHi everyone, I'm new to Cake Central, & cake decorating. I'm trying to make Princess Elsa from Disneys Frozen, but I'm struggling to do her face. I can do cartoon type faces but a Disney Princess requires more detail, particularly the eyes. After watching a video online I bought some edible paints & luster dust but I want to make the edible paint dry more quickly so I have more time for more practice attempts, at the rate I'm going I'm only managing to do one attempt a day because of how long it's taking for each layer of paint to dry. Any tips on how to make the paint dry more quickly would be appreciated, well, any advice on how to make a good Princess Elsa would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Noticed you got no replies, did you already do your Frozen theme cake??? I just did one a few days ago, its in my albums....not sure what your needing to know or what you work with. I work with Candy melts....

AThanks so much! The Frozen cake is due this Saturday. I don't know anything about candy melts, how do you use them? I don't think they are readily available in the UK, I have to order most things online as it is cos I live in a tiny town. I'm using fondant to sculpt Elsa, I found a video online but I think my art skills are letting me down, I'm struggling to get her face to look right, the shape, the nose, the eyes & lips and also the hair, I just can't get any of it to look right regardless of how many times I look at pics or watch the video... Any advice on sculpting with fondant, any advice on making the face look right and any advice on hair colour would all be much appreciated!

AIt sounds like you would save yourself a lot of stress if you ordered one from etsy. Maybe one of the artists there could expedite one for you. You'd have to say goodbye to any profit you had lined up, but it would be worth it to me. Elsa looks like one that should be left for the pro fondant modelers.

AThanks for your speedy reply, the ones on etsy aren't much better than what I'm making, none of them truly look like Elsa in my opinion, plus I'd be concerned about time, I wouldn't be confident that it would get here in time, & then what if I'm not happy with it? I think I'm just going to continue what I'm doing & hope for the best. Thanks so much for your messages! Wish me luck!

Are you using gel colors?  Are you mixing them with vodka or lemon extract?  You can also use edible marking pens.  I can see how if you use straight gel color on fondant it would take a long time to dry.

Here is a tutorial

AThat's the video I'm trying to follow but not matter how much I try, my Elsa doesn't look like that! I'm using gel colours with vodka but it's the white of the eye that I'm struggling with, I bought edible white paint but it needs 2 or 3 layers to look properly white & each layer takes a good few hours to dry... Have I just got a dodgy pot of edible white paint? I'm now trying to kinda smush white fondant into the eye socket in the right shape, I'm letting it dry as I type (not as long as waiting for the white edible paint to dry) and then paint on details with gel colours & vodka... I understand I've bitten off more than I can chew with this cake & won't be attempting anything as ambitious for a while! I really appreciate everyone's input! Even if advice isn't necessarily used for this cake, it's all going in my memory bank for future reference! Thanks so much everyone!

When I paint with petal or luster dusts I mix them with Pure Grain Alcohol (PGA).  It's 190+ proof, so it evaporates almost immediately. .

If you have a computer and a printer try printing out an image in the exact size that you need. Then using an exacto knife, you can cut out each feature and use a push pin to push through the paper to place those exact locations of each feature then remove the paper and you'll have a better idea of where everything goes. (I hope this makes sense). Sometimes having the detail right in front of you to place right on your sculpt makes it easier to visualize and then move on. Above all, stay positive and think positive and everything will be just fine. :-)

And I use vodka with my "paints" to make them dry much faster. And I put my ceiling fan on very high to move the air. 

How about rolling out a very thin layer of white fondant and use that as the base for the eye instead of painting it.

ACan't help with Elsa but if you have a Hobbycraft near you they sell candy melts. :-)

AThanks again to everyone for your suggestions! I'm try use white fondant for the white of the eye, I think that's my best bet though I think I need to take a break cos I keep messing up with the painting & I'm getting increasingly frustrated & worried as time ticks away! My nearest hobby craft store is about a 40 mile drive away so that's no really a viable option. I think I just need to keep doing what I'm doing, just a little more calmly, I can just feel my blood pressure rise as I step into my kitchen!

Here's Puzzling a fondant image....guess you lay the image over the piece of fondant and trace out the face to get what you need imprinted to fill in

The Puzzling is exactly what I do... it works really well. 

I was just wondering how your cake turned out? 

oh wow! I find Candy Melts so easy to work with!!! Thats how I do my images as Fondant and I fight big time! now Im wondering of Modeling candy and how that would work...if I can make letters/fonts, or if I can do it like you all do with  cutting an image and tracing it out on fondant to paint...wondering if I can do that with modeling chocolate.

It could have been better but my skills were pushed to the max on this cake. The little girl loved it though so all was good in the end.

Thanks so much to everyone for all your advice!

I think it looks awesome, I mean mine would be like HORRIBLE!!!....and you know its good when the little girl loves it!! and that is what counts....Awesome Job!!!

It's beautiful!! You get an A+ from me!!! I'm sure the little girl just loved it. It's gorgeous. 

AHi, I'm about to attempt to make my grand-daughter a frozen themed Birthday cake. Judging from the difficulty level at making Elsa should I just stick with Olaf & allot of snowflakes???? It sounds like an easy way out but it might be as much as I can handle I'm thinking.

AYou could always make a doll cake if you think making elsa would be too difficult. Just throwing out the idea :) I struggle with sculpting myself. I made dd a tangled doll cake. Mattel makes their sparkle doll with a top painted on the doll too... would make it even easier :) here is my cake... I used fondant... but I've seen people use frosting. [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3280223/width/200/height/400[/IMG]