Daughter's 9th Birthday
This cake was a hard one. I wanted to have a 3D cat on the cake that was made out of cake. After a lot of thought and no luck looking for a pan on the internet, I had an idea. My Daughter had a brass cat statue that was the correct size and pose. I decided to create my own pan.
After a few false starts, I took aluminum foil and molded it to the brass statue. I applied multiple layers and then used a folded sheet of foil as a strap to hold the shape together. I propped it in a pan and added more filler to make sure it was secure. I poured cake batter in and baked it. To my surprise, it worked on the first try. The only thing that didn't survive well was the face and ears (I didn't expect it to work being that they were so small).
After it cooled I spent the next couple hours covering it with fondant. I hand molded the ears and face (the face lost some details over time). I painted it with paste food coloring and a brush (I didn't have an air-brush yet).
The rest of the cake was standard going. I wanted to make the cat look like it was sitting on a pillow so I added some wrinkles, which are hard to see in the pictures. The ball of yarn is just rolled fondant. I added a little sparkle glitter to give it a little shine and that was it!
It will be some time before I make a 3d figure out of cake again... I'd use Modeling Chocolate instead... There's always next year.