I am making a bday cake for a friend she is vegetarian so can't use MM or gelatin. I am very new at this. I have only made one cake with fondant before and it was the Wilton pre-made fondant. It turned out well but tasted kinda gross and was expensive. So I would like to make my own fondant this time, I will also be making little figurines on top of the cake, can I use the fondant as like a molding clay or do I need to use gum paste?

Thank you for any advice!!!

I'm sorry to tell you that gelatin is a basic ingredient in any kind of fondant or gumpaste. You might be able to substitute a vegetable gum like agar or carageenan, but I don't know of any recipes. You could try your hand at modeling chocolate (there are tons of recipes on the internet), at least for the figures, but I'd frankly go with an all-shortening buttercream for the covering. Another possibility is to cover the cake with marzipan, which is made from almond paste and behaves kind of like fondant, but it's quite expensive and not always easy to come by. Hope you find something you're comfortable with. In general terms, the best fondant I've ever come across is Michele Foster's Fondant, of which there are several variants in the recipe section here. It's not a marshmallow-based fondant, but it IS made with gelatin.

Is she vegan or vegetarian? Kosher gelatin/marshmallows are made from fish gelatin.