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The first components I made for this cake were the floppy puppy dog ears, the tail, and the paws. I made these a day in advance so they would have time to dry and harden. First came the ears. I sketched a rough pattern and cut out some fondant mixed with Tylose powder. While still soft, I stuck two long toothpicks into the base, folded the fondant into the floppy ear shape, and then propped the folds with some wadded up plastic wrap so they would keep their shape as they dried. (Sorry I thought I had a picture, but I can't find it.)
I also made the paws and the tail out of the fondant/Tylose mixture and gave them a day to dry and harden.
On cake construction day I stacked and iced the cake with buttercream, and then started on the collar. I wasn't sure if the birthday girl's pit bull was a girl or a boy, so I made the collar red. Plus I had some red Fondarific Fondant so I didn't have to tint anything. I cut out a 1/2" strip using a Wilton Ribbon/Strip Cutter, and then put a stitch-like pattern on the outer edge of the collar.
Below is the cake with the collar attached. Sorry for the lumpy looking finish to the cake, but I accidentally added too much milk to my buttercream so it was super, super soft. I didn't have time to fix the buttercream (add more powder sugar) because I only had about 2 hours to throw this cake together.
For the metal looking pieces for the collar I cut square shapes from white fondant and painted them with edible silver luster dust mixed with vodka. I was going to write Happy Birthday on the tag, but it didn't dry in time for me to write on it. Guess I should have done that part the day before to give it time to set.
After the collar I made the puppy's nose. I used black Fondarific Fondant and modeled it from a sketch of a pit bull.
Next came the jowls and mouth. I cut out two white fondant circles for the jowls, a smaller circle out of black for the mouth, and an oval out of pink for the tongue.
The eyes were next. Just circles cut out from fondant. For the smallest circles I used Wilton icing tips. I tried making the eyes more oval shape to match the look of a pit bull, but it didn't look very good so I just stuck with the circles.
But before the eyes went on the cake, I rolled out some bluish gray fondant for the puppy's spots.
After the spots were in place, I positioned the eyes.
Next I carefully placed the ears, paws, and tail. I wan't too pleased with the placement of the paws-- they really are too far apart. I wanted them positioned closer to the mouth, but I accidentally put the buckle for the collar in the wrong place. The buckle should have been a little more towards the left ear, and that would have given me more room to tuck the paws on either side of the mouth. But live and learn. Not too bad for a quickie, and with all the decorations you can't even see the terrible job I did with smoothing the sides of the cake.
Happy Decorating,
Carol
Supply List:
Mona Lisa Fondant
Wilton's Sky Blue and Black gel food color
Wilton Tylose Powder
Cake Boss Decorating Tools
Razor Slicer
Square Cookie Cutter Set
Cake Boss Round Cookie Cutter Set
Fondarific Black Fondant
Fondarific Red Fondant
Wilton Ribbon/Strip Cutter
