I am trying to make a wine barrel cake and was wondering if instead of covering the cake in fondant... actually making the fondant into wooden slats and putting it on the cake piece by piece... Would it actually stand up? How long will it take for the wooden slats to dry? I plan on hand painting them. Should I let them dry before assembling the pieces onto the cake itself?

Thank you in advance!

if your going to go the fondant route i would def let it dry first and attach it with royal icing and tie a string around it till its dry but if your not planning on eating it you could use denotative dough (dead dough) and wrap it around it . I actually made a showpiece out of it and once you bake it off if you use a torch and heat it up a bit you can bend it.