Hello!
I am in need of some ideas...I am making a cake for my friend's daughter, it is her 13th birthday and mom said she loves giraffes and was thinking of a safari theme. My issue is I keep getting hung up on how to do safari in teen vs baby....I thought about neon animal print but everything I have been thinking of would involve large amounts of fondant and I get complaints when I use fondant. Everyone always loves how te cake looks but doesn't like actually eating the fondant which totally ruins the satisfaction I typically get out of people enjoying my cake.
One...any design ideas or examples would be appreciated to help me get going?
Two...is there a way to make fondant less gummy and tasteless?
Three...when is it better to use gum paste over fondant?
I am still new to cake decorating so there are some things I am still learning, if anyone can help me with any of these questions, it would be most appreciated!!! Thanks!
Are you using homemade fondant? I make my own fondant- and it is delicious. And I love the neon animal print idea......I'm sure she will too. Is she a girly girl? You could make a cartoonish giraffe out of gumpaste that has a bow and lipstick- or some other girly features. Or even out of neon colors...
When I make figures I use 50/50 -(gumpaste and fondant) I use Nicolas Lodge's recipe for gumpaste - and I make my own fondant- it's easy and way cheaper, too. It's out of marshmellows and powdered sugar-very sweet.
What are you using for gumpaste? I started out using the Wilton mix, very untasty...
Oh and for black fondant, which you would probably use in a safari theme ..I take my white fondant, and add cocoa powder to it....then it only needs a little black coloring to turn black- and it is very delicious - very chocolaty!
Super awesome tip! Will definitely use!!
I have never made my own fondant it gum paste but I can certainly try. I have always used the Wilton pre-made.
I love the idea of the lipstick...maybe I can drum up some eye shadow and jewelry. Hmm, perhaps I'm getting too ambitious with three little ones though...
What do you mean 50/50? Do you mix the fondant and gum paste or do you just decorate with both equally? Sorry if that seems redundant but again, still learning.
Any other tips? Recipes?
Thanks so much!
i mix my fondant with gumpaste - makes it very pliable but dries faster- I use nicolas lodges recipe- you can google it - and sometimes I just add tylose to my fondant- makes it turn into an instant gumpaste-rather then waiting 24 hours for the homemade stuff to do it's thing...
anyway- this stuff all tastes much better-I'm sure you will like the results! Can't wait to see pics!
Here's one I made for a teen:
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1671064/safari-18th-birthday
I only used fondant for the stripes and spots. I also make my own using Michele Foster's recipe which can be found here on cakecentral. Lots of folks also make marshmallow fondant. Quick and easy, tastes like marshmallows...
Wilton fondant is notoriously untasty. A different storebought brand which tastes decent is Satin Ice.
You use gumpaste when you want the item to harden more rapidly and it likely won't be eaten. Sometimes people use half fondant and half gumpaste, kneaded together. This allows more time to work with the figure because fondant doesn't dry as quickly. But it'll still harden up sturdily due to the gumpaste being in there.
On the cake above, I just used little animal toys instead of modeling them from something.
Good luck!
Thank you! We will see how it goes! Cake is due Jan 28th so I am sure you will hear from me before then 
How about something like this:
http://www.spdak.com/web%20galleries/special%20occasion/wgc_media/source/African%20Safari.JPG
It was one we did for an adult.
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