Ah, the time has come for me to start thinking about this huge alligator cake I am making for next week. It has to feed about 250 people. I have baked 3 sheet cakes so far, i am planning on baking probably 4-5 more. I was planning on stacking two sheet cakes long ways (total 4) for the body, then two more for the head and then two more but carved for the tail. Use scraps for the legs and feet and eyes. fondant cutouts for teeth. The cake will be about 4-5 feet long, and I don't want to spend that much on fondant, so I cam going to use buttercream.
Now here is the crazy part.
I think if I just use the star tip and cover it with stars, it would give a realy cool affect/texture. (lots of green buttercream! hahaha) Am I nuts? do you think that will take me hours and hours and hours and give me major hand cramps? or do you think I should go for it?
Also, I need ideas on how to do the scales on his back. (see attachment) Should I make green fondant?
This is the going to be the biggest cake I have ever done!!
Wow! The stars will take forever, but it will look really neat!
I'm not sure about the scales. Some fondant triangles attached to toothpicks would probably be easiest.
I can't wait to see this cake done.
WOW! What an undertaking. 
I can't say one way or other if it's crazy, but boy I will send you a major kudos when it's done. Good luck. Can't wait to see it.
I think that would look really good, but I get exhausted just from doing a small cake with stars. I guess you could use the truiple star tip, but I don't think it looks as good. I think the fondant would work if you go ahead and make the scales now so they would be good and dry.
Yeah I agree, I never liked the triple star tip, it was more work then just using a single star!
How about if I use a really big star tip, instead of the usual 16? I agee, I just think it would look so cool!
The other idea I had was to cut fondant circles and lay them like roofing tile over the entire thing, but that would also be just so much work! (and a lot of fondant, no?) What do you think?
yes, will start the scales right away!
http://www.alligatorbayou.com/alligator.htm
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pelotes.jea.com/ColoringPage/Reptile/Colallig.gif&imgrefurl=http://pelotes.jea.com/ColoringPage/Reptile/colaligat.htm&h=480&w=388&sz=26&tbnid=02V2laJvNFgwxM:&tbnh=126&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dalligator&start=1&
I thought you might see other possibilities if you looked at a picture of a real alligator. Frost him in green(?) butter cream with a spatula. Make a scale pattern with tip of the spatula, and use the star tip for his ridges and knobs.
Think that a large leaf tip may add dimension for scales that would be awesome - you could not pull it out to so much of a point...a thought.
I saw a woman on Sugar Rush make rainbow trout. She just flat-iced them thickly and used a round tip to dig in and lift to make scales. A lot smaller than your cake, but it might get your mind going in a different way (and easier on your hands, too!)
Good luck!
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