HELP! I have a friend that has her heart set on a cake that is a tall square present cake with a woman "popping" out of the top holding a champagne glass in one hand and a bottle in the other. (She needs to be about 6 inches tall, just from the waist up). I really want to make this for her, but I have been looking and searching all weekend trying to find how to do this the easiest since I have very little experience sculpting and have never made a person. I have no problem making the cake it's just sculpting the woman that I am having a nervous break down over! I tried to make it with just fondant, but it wasn't firm enough/didn't hold it's shape well enough and was just "melting" as I tried to sculpt her. Please lend me your wisdome on this one! I really want to make this for her! It's her 30th birthday! What is best to use to sculpt with, modeling chocolate, fondant, gumpaste? do I need wire or dowels in the middle for the body or arms? How to attach the arms/head? I am a newbie, so any and all advise and instruction would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I am pretty new myself. My best guess is to sculpt the women out of a mixture of rice krispies and modeling chocolate. I saw a post where someone made pepe le pue (sp?) out of it and it worked well. HTH!

Using the rice krispys is a good suggestion. I've never tried it myself, but have seen some nice figures made with them.

I make my figures from fondant with tylose added. About 1 tsp. tylose powder to 1 lb. fondant. You can also use gumpaste. There are many tutorials on the web for modeling. Aine2 has great tutorials for sale on her site.

thanks. I may try RKT covered in fondant. When you use the fondant with tylose added is it still hard to keep the shape before it dries? like to make the arms stay up instead of hanging down. I was having trouble with it "melting"/squishing down while I was working on it, but I didn't add tylose, so maybe that's why...

You need to use foam or tissue or paper towels, etc. to hold the pieces in position until they dry.