3lbs. interesting. i must research these ingredients and prices of them and work out a cost/lb ratio vs. purchased rolled fondant and see how much it would save me to determine whether or not it would be beneficial to spend the time to make it vs. just buying it and waiting for it to ship here.

thanks so much for all the info, ladies, you've all been so wonderful to me!

so heres a quick question, maybe someone can help me with.

at the top of the cake, i will be placing a big 'double happiness' symbol in chinese. i plan to make this out of fondant. i was thinking of cutting this character out of fondant, two of them, and then 'gluing' them together with the toothpicks inbetween to give it some 'strength' to stand up atop the cake.

any suggestions to use as a binding agent to glue the fondant backs to each other around the toothpicks? i normally just use hairspray =x

I would make your characters out of gumpaste, much stronger. You could push some toothpicks in the bottom of them before they dry, then stick them in the cake. Royal icing works great to glue stuff together too.

i use egg whites for gluing my stuff together. I agree gum paste is a better way to go with that.

awesome! thanks for the suggestions =D

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1648775.html

the finished project!

Very nice, I bet your aunt was thrilled.

Your finished cake was truly spectacular. Can you tell us more about it? How many pounds of fondant did you end up using, what fondant did you finally decide on, how did the transportation go, and stuff like that. This has been a real adventure, and I admire you for pursuing it as tenaciously as you have. Here's "double happiness" to you, as well as to the bride and groom!