I'm making a mini bear pan bear on top of two tiers. I am going to make the bear holding a balloon with my daughters name on it. My question is what should i make the balloon out of so it looks 3-d. I was thinking fondant, but I'm afraid it may be too heavy since i will have to extend his arm in fondant and pipe over that. Any suggestions. Thanks so much, I appreciate all of your help!!

What about a real balloon...water balloon size? You could inflate it less to make it smaller if you needed to. You could write her name on it with a marker and attach it to a lollipop stick.

Thanks so much for the suggestions. I think I'm going to try filling the water balloons with helium and writing her name on one. That will look really cute, if I can get helium in them. If the helium won't work I'll just blow them up and attach them to the lollipop stick. Thanks again, I'm really excited about this cake!!