Hello fellow cakers,

I have been asked to create a replica of a guitar.  The recipients wish to keep it after the event therefore they don't want it to be made of cake.

I know that cake dummies can be covered with fondant icing, so I was thinking that a polystyrene sheet could be used.  When I looked into it, there are all sorts of grades of polystyrene and I don't know which I should be looking for!

Then I wondered if a foam sheet would be better.

What would be the easiest to shape? I think the depth is going to be the most challenging as the polystyrene sheets only seem to come in either 10mm or 25mm deep (or more)

Also, should I used buttercream icing under the fondant to eliminate the bumps and help the fondant stick, or is there something else I could use, bearing in mind this is just going to be a model and not for eating. 

Thank you for any advice!!

Sarah-Lou (Hugs & Kisses Celebration Cakes)

You could also make the guitar from cold  porcelain or gumpaste. The porcelain would last forever I would think and it is easy to make and work with. The recipe is posted here at Cake Central.

When making a dummy wedding cake I found a product (Perma Ice) that was made expressly for the purpose of covering dummy cakes for long term display for $75/gallon! Since I needed enough for a 7 tier cake, that was going to take 2 gallons min, so I looked at alternatives. I went to a hardware store & bought wall finishing spackle in bulk, and treated it just like icing. I had my simple round foam cake bases covered in sticky plastic wrap, completely smoothed out, and I used an offset to cover it with spackle just as I would with icing, and let it dry overnight. The beauty of this product, besides being 1/4th of the cost of the Perma Ice, is that I could sand it to a perfectly smooth finish, I could add more product where needed, and could carve details using a Dremel or Foredom tool. Somehow it worked out some that the spackle adhered to the plastic wrap in such a way that I could slide the whole spackled shell off the cake, which allowed me to use the same foam base for numerous designs. I've had the cake for 5+ years and it's perfect. Once you have decided on your base, I highly recommend a trip to the hardware store. Don't know much about foam, but the green 'crunchy' type often used by florists, I believe, can also be shaped by sanding. I've used an electric knife to carve my basic shape & refined it with coarse sandpaper and files.

I used fondant to make strings for a viola cake. The day of the event it was pouring, and the strings slumped (along with my heart :(  ) Since then I have seen strings make from dry pasta, and guitar cakes featuring actual guitar strings or craft wire. $5-$6 buys you a set for a 6 string guitar.  Good luck!