What can I replace coconut with that gives a similar snowy look? Cake is for the 1st b-day and the mom is allergic to coconut. (3d snowman with pink and purple details) If my cousin comes up on his dd's birthday that is what he wants (also a suprise for the mom she doesn't know he is planning a party for their dd, she turns 1 on Dec. 25)

i'm not sure where you are putting 'snow' on the cake, but if it's the cake board, you can you pipe/spatula blobs of snow-white buttercream and sprinkle crushed white/clear cake sprinkles over the top to give it a sheen.

How about wrapping the snowman in a layer of cotton candy?
I've seen packaged cotton candy in some stores, though it's usually pink or blue. Pink would work for a girl.
How expensive are those little kiddie cotton candy machines?

Also, I was just looking at a pic of a Teddy Bear, covered in fondant then used scissors to snip fondant into fur.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1537825.html

HTH

if you spread a thin layer of white royal icing onto some parchment paper and let it sit overnight and harden, then take a bench scraper and scrape it off (or crunch it up) and then mix that with some clear edible cake glitter (wilton)and a little sanding sugar and you'll have perfect snow that's sparkly and very realistic looking.

Kind of combining some of the suggestions above, I was going to say to spread buttercream in a "snow-like" pattern, or however you want it to look. Then sprinkle edible glitter or sanding sugar over it. HTH. Best of luck with your project!

I din look up the picture but another way to make 'snow' super easy is to put a bit of powdered sugar in a seive and just tap it over your piece--instant snow. Sometimes the simplest ways...

I substituted shaved white chocolate on a cake that used coconut and it turned out great.

when i made my snow i just swirled the buttercream around making small "drifts" in some spots and then used the wilton clear glitter. i also used a brush and dabbed some gold glaze here and there...silver would look good too, i just had a whole gold theme going on.

white chocolate sounds good.

Several great ideals, I like the white chocolate ideal
the shaggy bear looks great

i agree with white chocolate!

also a ball of fondant, left uncovered for a about an hour or so till it hardens a bit and then grated.

Another one is to use a snowflake scrapbook hole punch onto blue-ish wafer paper.

http://www.acmecakes.com/images/snowflakecake.jpg

Now my pine cones* look like turds but the snowflakes are pretty cool.

*CostumeCzarinela's fabulous pine cone tutorial was
a few years late pour moi.

snowflakes are cute. love the cake and your pinecones looks great.

another great ideal to add to my list.