Odd question Im sure, but Im making my daughters first birthday cake- it is a cinderella's carriage and the wheels are giving me fits, they have been sitting out done for two days and they still wont hold their shape when I go to set them up. Is there any technique I can use to harden them quickly? Her birthday party will be on Sunday so I have a few days. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much!

If you have any fondan left, add the same amount of gumpaste to it. It will harden very quickly. If not, try a fan, I had to dry some fondant this summer, and I just put a small fan on low and not too close, but it did work.

Yep. If you used straight fondant, they will never harden properly. Even when hardened fondant will be quite fragile and may crumble. I would use 1/2 fondant 1/2 gumpaste, or else you can add gum-tex or tylose powder to your fondant for the same effect (that's what Aine2 does...you should check out her amazing figure work). Gumtex is available at Michael's; you have to find a cake store to get tylose powder.

Then to speed up the drying process I recommend putting them in an oven with the heat off, the light on. (Be sure they are not right next to the light though.) Then put a sticky note on your oven so you don't accidentally "preheat" your wheels!!

p.s. welcome to CC!

thank you both so very much!! Ill try the gumpaste (no Micheals here) and Ill update on how it goes! The party is Sunday and this is definatly the most difficult cake Ive ever tried to do. Hopefully its not a wreck!

Well so far so good! I ended up using the gum paste for a lot of stuff. Ive never worked with it before, I think I like it alot


here it is so far, its not my own design, I knocked it off from www.jane-asher.co.uk

That looks amazing!!!!! What did you use to get the cake in the shape of the carriage?

Great Work!

Oh it's just beautiful. The wheels look terrific. Judging by the way the cake came out in general I can't believe you have never used gp before! I was always scared of it too, I always thought people meant it would dry out in like 10 seconds. The first time I tried it I was shocked out how easy it was to use.

Thank you!
shmibs- the top half is the wilton 3D ball pan and the bottom is a half styrofoam ball. I didnt want to risk a whole cake ball with all the work I had to do!

ceshell thank you, I really like working with it. I was really worried at first but I definatly will keep it on hand for the coming birthdays!

Now I need help, and I will be honest I show my lack of skill when covering a simple two layer cake with fondant. Under the topper cake is a 12" round two layer and it looks just so ugly Im not sure what to do with it and I dont know what to do to finish the bottom. I am NOT good at bottoms at all. Any ideas?
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Maybe flower vines creeping up the side with lots of flowers? Simple and won't detract from the topper. Not sure if this would fit in with your vision.

Although your link didn't work, it works fine if we paste the http info into our browser, so I saw the cake. It looks so cute! I don't think it looks ugly, just plain. I like the idea of flower vines. If it were me I'd be stuck for an idea and would just go look up other carriage cakes in the gallery for ideas .
I highly recommend a complementary gold border around the topper cake, and maybe around the bottom cake too depending on what else you decide to do for decoration. It looks like you fondanted the cake in white, I am wondering if you can do anything to change the color as it could remain plain with little doodad decorations on it, but it needs to be a complementary color, like the dark pink used in the carriage, if you want to leave it kind of plain. A greenish color might work too (along with the vines idea) to make one think of the garden in which the carriage was first created. Those are my 2c!

I didnt have a chance to read your suggestions lastnight they sound really beautiful. Green would have been gorgeous :/
But I finished it lastnight. I made it my profile pic and it should be in my gallery. Thank you SO much for all of your help everyone!!

Dear me, it doesn't look like you needed our suggestions anyway, because your choices look lovely! There is more than one (or two or ten) way(s) to decorate a cake and I really like the direction you chose

Thank you, Im very flattered! I actually started doing some white piping and decided it looked HORRIBLE, and then tried to remove it and just made a mess and it went downhill. Luckily the vines were chunky enough to cover it up :blush: that is why the front two vines are doubled up lol!