I searched all the forms and didn't find the exact answers I was looking for. I even e-mailed a cakeshop half way around the globe to ask them for some pointers for making my own home baked version, and they said they "dont reveal their techniques" (well laah-dee-dah).
Anyway. Boyfriend's birthday next month and I want to make a realistic tiki statue cake similar to the ones below, more so like the one from CakeLava(it looks most realistic). I've never made any type of sculpted or fondanted cake before, but I believe I can do this.

I'm thinking a multi-layer cake.
4-5 small layers, total height around 12 inches.
No chocolate (he hates chocolate).

Questions:
1. Can I use cream cheese frosting under fondant, rather than buttercream?
2. Someone suggested using rice krispies. Where would/could this come into play for my cake?
3. Would I need dowels or any other non-edible supplies to support this thing? What other tools will be needed?
4. How do I get the 3D "sculpted" or "carved" look? Is that done by carving the actual cake or just carving the fondant.
5. Where do I get colored fondant? Could I "paint" my finished cake w/pigments or food coloring to give it the more authentic wood look?

Basically. I want it to look as much like the CakeLava tiki cake as possible. I'm in FL and theyre in Hawaii and wouldn't 'reveal techniques' to me, so I need to figure out how to make this thing on my own.



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I'm by no means an expert but thought I'd try and help. If you plan on stacking cakes you certainly need to dowel them. I've used cream cheese frosting under fondant with no problems though I can't get it as smooth as I do with ganache. It is much easier to carve the cake than the ganache. You could also use mounds of fondant to make certain areas raised under the fondant. The features that are only slightly carved (like the teeth and woodgrain) I would just use tools to mark the fondant. I would colour the fondant first (use gel colours) but make it a lighter brown. Then use gel colour mixed with decorating alcohol, vodka (something with no colour) and paint the rest.

Hope this helps, good luck.

On the cake I was making the entire tier was supposed to be carved tiki faces. I simply covered the entire thing in brown fondant then went back and added the details out of the same brown fondant "snakes". After that I went back with an alcohol based paint I mixed and added some shading to make it look more realistic.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1535622&sub=1535660