I'm thinking of making one of those gumpaste shoes with a shoe box cakes for my mom's birthday later this month, and I just had a few questions...

1) When you make the shoe box with the lid sort of propped open, is it just resting on the ruffled fondant ("tissue paper"), or is there something more solid holding up the box top?

2) Does anyone have any tips for making animal print (preferably zebra or the leopard prints), either out of fondant or painting with food color? The zebra stripes look like sort of random stripes, but I wasn't sure if anyone had any methods they like... and are the leopard spots just brushed on varying shares of brown and black?

I'd appreciate any help! Thanks!

Hi there, when I made my shoe box cake, I let the lid rest on the ruffles.

And here is video on how you can do the zebra stripes,

http://www.creativecelebrationcakes.co.uk/page49.htm

HTH.

When I made my zebra cake-I used fondant. I felt it looked a little cleaner than trying to paint them on. I just cut random shaped strips-it worked really well. Good luck! Post pics once you make your cake!