Hello everyone!I'm pretty new to cake decorating.

I am going to be making a 3-tier cake covered in fondant. I also want 3-4 (depending how difficult I find the figures to be) animal figures on it that are 2-4 maybe 4 1/2 inches tall. I'm pretty sure I'm leaning towards fondant or modeling chocolate. I researched the differences between the three but I keep coming up with different answers. I've even seen people suggest a mix of modeling chocolate and fondant. I'm just not sure what to use..

I plan to color my fondant, modeling chocolate, or gum paste, too. I also plan to color the fondant I am going to be using to cover my cake. Any tips on coloring these items would be greatly appreciated.

And if it matters I plan to make my animal figures (dogs and maybe a few other creatures) detailed.

Thanks in advance for any replies. ^-^

The difference is probably that the modeling chocolate will be delicious. I've heard some children telling me that they thought the figurines would taste better. lol

I haven't made chocolate ones yet, but I'm planning to, very soon.

Here's some good reading:

http://www.cakeswebake.com/forum/topics/modeling-chocolate-vs-gum?commentId=4635016%3AComment%3A18542

http://sugarsweetcakesandtreats.blogspot.com/2011/03/korean-hanbok-dol-cake.html

http://bubbleandsweet.blogspot.com/2010/06/chocolate-modeling-paste-and-making.html

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-644869-next.html&sid=0f74ed22ab4859d063ce91e73b03fa36

I've never used modeling chocolate but I personally really like making my figures with gumpaste. I have used fondant for figures but had to add tylose to make it firm up for me.

I prefer to make mine out of gumpaste.

I like to use a 50/50 mix of fondant and gumpaste. There are some examples in my album. The fisherman/ boat, animals, and Ariel were all done using this mix!

I know from experience that modeling chocolate is a totally different texture than fondant or gum paste. I used it to make the leather panels on my western cake. It's got the consistency of a tootsie roll...which I was told was correct. not very stretchy like GP or fondant. And because I have hot hands, it was pretty melty and harder to manipulate. In my opinion if you want to make detailed figures and have lots of time to dry, I'd go with fondant. If you want something that dries fast and really hard go with gum paste. I also found the scent of the modeling chocolate is very strong...which is great if your cake is chocolate. BTW, I used Colleen Peter's recipe for modeling chocolate.

Thanks everyone!

@imagenthatnj: Yeah, I don't really mind what they taste like. The figures are mainly going to be for looks. lol

Hmm, so it sounds like I should use gum paste, fondant, or a mix. I'm going to a cake speacialty store tomorrow and depending on the price I'm either going to buy fondant and gumpaste, or make my own.

Do I need some kind of icing glue for my animal gum paste/fondant figures?

I actually LOVE working with modeling chocolate, but you have to make sure your hands are nice and cold first, and keep them super clean throughout the process- if a little bit sticks to you, then all of a sudden TONS will stick to you. Modeling chocolate is great because you can return to it a day (or even a month) later and add additional details to it, it doesn't become un-moldable like gum paste. However, if it's hot were you are, or if you need something inflexible for structural purposes, I would use a mix of gum paste and fondant, which is always my second choice