My daughter is in a group recital for violin and we are supposed to bring something. Her teacher is also moving away, so I want it to be nice. The last recital I brought violin shaped cookies decorated in royal icing.

This time I thought I would make a violin shaped cake. Mind you, I am fairly new to cake decorating. I looked at all of the photos in the gallery of violin cakes and now think that this is going to be too difficult, on many levels.

So, then I was thinking, cupcakes, or one of those sheet cakes that has a decoration in each section (I don't know what that is called, if it has a name), with a royal icing or chocolate violin on each. Problem is, I don't know how to make those. Do I buy a mold to make chocolate ones, or do I print out a pic of a violin, put wax paper or acetate on top and trace the image with the royal icing?

One part of me says to just bring something simple. Last time, everyone either brought chocolate chip cookies, oreos or grapes. Everyone was flipping out over the violin cookies and I was quite embarassed by all of the attention. The teacher is leaving, so I don't want to take any attention from her or the students, but on the other hand, I think there should be something nice for her as a goodbye. Also, I really enjoy this creative outlet, I just really dislike all the attention!

Any ideas/thoughts would be helpful. Or, if you think the violin cake is better (easier) please let me know.

THANKS SO MUCH!

Oh, I forgot. Another idea I had was for a sheet cake with white fondant that has 'sheet music', something super simple, like Twinkle, as my daughter is in her first year and that is all she plays and I don't have an edible printer, so I need to do it by hand! The maybe in one corner of the cake, there could be a small violin made out of fondant, such as the guitar in this pic.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1187615

Or, just have a section of sheet music going across the cake, such as in this pic.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=678643

Can the white fondant be painted with black gel coloring, or would I need to use black royal icing? I saw another pic that used rice paper with an edible ink pen. I would have no idea where to get either of those items.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=668263

Thanks again!