A Fondant Dad?!

I called my mom on Thursday night and said, "You'll die when you see what I'm doing!" About an hour earlier, I was roaming the cake decorating aisle at Michael's, and $99.97 later, I had all of the materials to make... my dad (a fondant version anyway). Call me delirious from being locked up in the house during one of the most epic snowstorms of my lifetime, or perhaps I was intoxicated with excitement after hearing of a third snow day (talk to me in June, when we're making up those days, and I'm sure I won't have the same enthusiasm), but my mind was set on designing a cake for dad's surprise 60th birthday party next weekend.

I browsed one of my favorite sites, Wilton Ideas, to get a feel for the type of cake I wanted to make. I didn't find exactly what I wanted, but got some great pictures in my head. Before I left the house, I found a great video on making fondant faces. Seemed easy enough... I picked up edible markers, forming cups, creamy peach icing color; these, among other things, added to the cake decorating accessories that will soon be overtaking my laundry room. Once I started, I found myself "in the zone," kneading, dying and shaping fondant like a mad woman!

The end result was decent, but not very sturdy. I've watched enough episodes of Cake Boss to know that cereal treats are the way to go. A 7:30 am trip to Wal-Mart the next morning resulted in cereal treats galore and lots more fondant. I found the molding process fairly easy, and the end product looks much less like an elementary art project than my first attempt.

What I'm happy with: ease with which cereal treats can be molded.
What I'm not happy with: covering the treats in fondant was not quite as easy. Final product looks alright, but fondant could be smoother. The picture at the top is the final product. This was my first attempt (all fondant):

Next on my agenda... covering a cake in fondant. Is it as hard as I think it is? We shall see...

Oh, and needless to say, mom was hysterical :)