Hey,

I'm new to cake decorating, I have made one cake before, for Christmas, which didn't turn out too bad, but now I have been asked by my soon to be sister-in-law to make a cake for her hen do/garden party. She wants me to make her, and 3 of the bridesmaids.

I have attempted to the bride and me, one of the bridesmaids, but they haven't turned out great, I couldn't get the shape, as it kept shrinking if I left it to harden, and the paste kept cracking, I added more and more paste, which led to quite chubby figures, and they did not need to be does anyone have advice for what I could do to improve on this? I did insert a cocktail stick into each to hold on the heads and hoped it would help support the body, unfortunately it did not. They're also leaning backwards, which wasn't the plan.

I was also wondering if anyone could give me ideas on what else I could put on the cake? I was going to put a layer of grass, and flowers around the base. I wanted to put some writing, but I have no idea what I could put.

Thank you

These are what I have so far:

Are you using gumpaste? And is it premade, a mix or recipe made? I like to use fondant and add tylose to it. Gumpaste tends to dry out & crack, so can fondant if it is to dry. The tylose will firm up the fondant but not dry it out like gumpaste. I also rub a little vegetable shortening on my hands while I am working on my objects.

I use sugarpaste, I think it is the same thing? I buy mine pre-made, I think I will purchase some tylose and see how I go with that. Thank you.

I'm certainly not an expert like many here on CC; but for my figures, I prefer to use a 50/50 mixture of gumpaste & fondant. The fondant extends the workability of the paste, preventing it from drying out too quickly and cracking.

Figures are hard, no doubt about it, and everyone is a new learning adventure. There are some great tutorials online, that should help you get started. Just make sure you make the legs, body, & head separately, and allow them to dry before putting them together. Otherwise the weight of the pieces will collapse the others, which could account for the leaning you're experiencing. As for structure, if no one is going to eat the figures, you could make an armature out of good strong floral wire, which should help support the body, arms, legs, & head. If you want them to be edible, you can use spaghetti noodles for support. These threads may offer some further help:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-641578-.html

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-683099.html

Hope this helps!