I am making the groom's cake for my cousin's wedding, and they want an elephant! I am so excited to do it, but I am having trouble figuring out how to color the fondant... I don't want to do grey, because it will just look cartoony... I was hoping to get that matte brownish white color like when the elephant has rolled around in the mud and it dries... They are going to Disney, and staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for their honeymoon, so I thought a safari elephant would be perfect... someone help! I NEED ideas!!!

Mix some powdered sugar and baking cocoa. Use the end of a blunt brush to stipple not drag across when you dust.

Actual fondant grey so you have multiple shades.

So I trolled around the internet looking for something like what I wanted to do... and this is pretty much EXACTLY the coloring I was looking for... http://www.craftstorming.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/elephantcake.jpg Do you still think the grey?

To my eyeballs that looks like pale grey dusted with beige base and overdusted with ivory highlights. There are many tones in the body (not the icing mud). Try to check out any Alan Dunn book for his layers of overdusting as they are what was used here.

OK, so it looks like Alan Dunn is my new best friend... I don't see any of his books available for my nook, so the next stop for me this afternoon is the book store! I now wonder where I can find MASS quantities of petal dust! lol

Go to amazon.co.uk and search books "alan dunn" because you can look at the insides of most of them. Might save you some $$$.

I believe petal dust comes in large packs but you have to ask.

So I haven't found a single ebook by alan dunn... and it would never get to me on time if I ordered it... any basic tips before I throw caution to the wind and just start layering dust????

Alan Dunn books are not sold as ebooks. But there are "look inside" features on most of his paper books. Sorry that I didn't make that clear.

Anyway--once the base gumpaste is half dry, you would dust medium brown into the crevices of the skin for the shadows. Then overdust the pearl more or less all over, except into the crevices. One pass with white on the highest parts might then be in order. You would steam this if possible to set the dust.

Thank you so much! That is exactly what I needed to know! I wasn't sure whether to set the layers in between dustings... but what you said makes total sense!

I realized I never posted how he turned out!