It's been a while...anybody remember me?

Anyway, I volunteered to make a 9 ft alligator cake. (When I volunteered, I thought it was a 3 foot cake...ooops!).

I'd like to try 2 new (to me) techniques.

1. Airbrushing

2. Giving the gator an open jaw

I've never done either.

Tips? Tutorials? THANKS!!

I would think for an open mouth you'd need to make some sort of a stand that was open like their jaw that allowed you to place cake on the bottom part and on top of the top part, does that make sense..........like something shaped like this > only with the bottom part being straight, then you'd just frost the underside of the top"board" that was holding the cake and that would become the roof of the mouth. Hope that makes sense??

As for the airbrushing.......I'm not great at it but I use it on almost EVERY cake I do it seems....the best thing to do is just practice and get the courage to USE it....you'll learn how to control it and get creative...I do a lot of "masking" off of areas when I use it and will draw shapes I need and cut them out of wax paper and use that as a stencil to get the effect I"m after.....that's what I did for the headstone cake I just made along with a ton of others......I airbrush a lot!! Saves a ton of time mixing up icing colors, I really hate mixing up colors...all the dirty bowls etc. ugh!!

Ok, Im not a pro, but I do have an idea...how about making a mold of melted choc. like that baby bassinet hood...and then icing the jaws. Get cardboard in the shape of < and then I would put wax paper or something like that taped on...and spread the choc. onto it. Let it dry and then remove, being very careful...then once the cake is done I would gently place the jaws on the cakes edge.

Decorate it with icing...JUST AN IDEA...what do you think? go check out the bassinet tutorial to see what Im saying.
POST PIC.
As to Airbrushing...Ive had mine almost yr. still in box, scared...lol...But do you need different jars for different airbrushing colors when you do a cake? or finish with one color and then clean and use again???

Thanks! I think I've given up on the open jaw...I don't have time to build a good structure--and this cake needs to be transported over an hour in the car!!

I'm gonna try with the airbrushing!

I actually made an alligator with an open jaw. I used a very sturdy piece of aluminum to hold the jaw open. For the airbrushing tecnique I used Satin Ice green fondant and then went over that with green and black airbrushing. The picture is in my photos. Hope this helps