I am an instructor at our local craft/fabric store. I made this cake for a display. My two girls used to play with this Barbie, but they let me have it to "transform" her. I wrapped the tail in gum paste and use a tip 352 for the "scales" with about 4 different colors of icing in the bag. All shells etc on the cake are just fondant popped into molds. The shell she is sitting in was the hardest-pink gum paste which I actually draped over a real shell that one of my girls had collected from the beach. I then let it dry like that, so it had the shell "lines". I recently had to take down the cake, as it has faded, but she's coming back soon on a white cake in a red sleigh for the holidays!