The head is molded from fondant . The rest of the body is cake. I used 3 8' round cakes, I cut one in half, stacked the halves and stood it up for the body. The next one was cut into slightly uneven quarters and used to make the front and hind legs. The third was cut to shape the neck and tail. All the scales were individually cut from thin fondant and applied one by one. Then whole thing was painted with Wilton colors and lemon juice. It took quite awhile but my nephew loved it.