I'm going to try making a purse cake and wanted to know what would be the best thing to use to make the straps stand up. I have MMF, gumpaste, and bought powdered fixodent. This is the first time I've done a cake like this and want it to turn out like the pictures I've seen here.
Thanks,
punkyf
If you have drying time, gumpaste would be the best - just cut to shape, put texture or stitching lines or whatever, and drape it over something to dry in the shape you want. Just be sure it is drying in the exact dimensions and shape you need. I did the French toile purse cake class with Nicholas Lodge - a one-day class - and there wasn't enough time for the handle to completely dry, so we used a little strip of white fondant bucket under the gumpaste to hold it up - just pushed the ends of the plastic into the dummy cake and piped a small bead border to pretty it up. That purse can be seen here
http://www.internationalsugarart.com/cgi-bin/store/shop.cgi
We usually use 1/2 fondant and 1/2 gumpaste with a little gumtex in it. Then we do the handle and insert a skewer onto the bottom of the handle 3 inchs in the handle (unseen) and anout 4-6 out the bottom to go into the cake. usually the points of the skewer are going into the cake. Lay flat to dry. when its realy, push the skewers end into the cake and there is no stress on the gumpaste/fondant part. They can be seen in my photos, the large Louie V purse on my last page and the smaller one.
Good luck! Hope this helps. 
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