I'm fine with gumpaste flowers and fondant cut-outs, but have never made a human figure before and need to do one now -- a rock-climber going up the side of a fondant-covered cake. I have a couple of great inspirations from the gallery, but don't know how to go about it. Do you make the body pieces ahead of time, let them dry, and then stick them together on the cake? If I make the whole figure all assembled and let it dry, do I risk having it fall apart or break as I try to put it on the side of the cake? What do you use to stick the pieces together? How do I attach it to the cake? If I just try to use egg-white or royal, won't the figure be be way too heavy to hold? Should I make a pick on the torso to stick in the cake? Do you wire the body parts together like flowers? Do you know of a good tutorial on-line for figure making? Thanks, everybody.

Hi, I learnt making figure models from aine2. She has some great online tutorials which you can buy. Here is a link for her website,

I think its best to use royal icing to attch the body to the cake.

HTH.

That helps a lot, Bashini. Thanks for responding. Is it all right, then, to make all the pieces separately well in advance and assemble them later when the cake is ready? Do you use gumpaste for the figures? I understand that some people use candy clay made from candy melts. Which do you think would be lighter in weight and thus more likely to stay in place on the side of the cake?

I'm new at making figures too and made my first people recently, thanks to Aine2's videos. I used gumpaste and, from one noob to another, noticed that they're quite light (way lighter than candy clay, I'd think) when dry and also very hard. If you're going to do them ahead of time, I'd put together at least the head and the body, so you can put in your piece of spaghetti when the gumpaste is still malleable. It really does help with the stability and there's no way you'll get the spag in there once they dry.

Hi, you are welcome. I wouldn't make the parts ahead, because it will be difficult to glue them together since they are dry. When they are soft, its easy to attach them and you might have to use some sponge pieces to keep under the legs till they dry properly. Mix 50/50 gumpaste and fondant to make the figures.

I can't help with candy clay as I haven't used them. Sorry!

Very helpful, but I've got a problem. I don't fancy myself much of a sculptor, but my daughter is a very good one. I was hoping she could sculpt the figure for me before she leaves for college this week -- the cake isn't due until late September, when I won't have her around to help with the figure. My gumpaste flowers can keep perfectly for months and months in an airtight container, so I was hoping to do the same with the rock-climbing figure. If we made the torso and attached head (with spaghetti post in the neck), maybe I could assemble the arms and legs in position with royal icing on the cake later? The sugar glue works best on still soft pieces?

The figure will keep very well until end of september, no problem. You can do the way you have planned. I'm sure it will be ok!