Fondant Cake

I'm still taking my Cake Decorating Classes and loving them.  I completed Course 4 Monday night and was very happy with my final cake.  This course focuses on using Fondant and Gum paste to cover and decorate a cake with.  We learned various techniques for handing fondant and gum paste, how to color it, shape it, etc.  I was really hesitant to take this course because the thought of using fondant made me nervous.  It's not something I'm familiar with and can be difficult to keep from breaking or tearing.  However, taking the course, I'm a little more confident using fondant and am going to try to make my own soon (so that it will be flavored).  

With this cake, everything is fondant.  I made a few gum paste flowers in class, but really wanted to learn how to make a bow so I decided to use this bow as my cake topper.  I covered my cake board in fondant  and used some flower expressions on the top part.  I had to make the pieces of the bow 4-5 days before class so they could dry.  Using the leftover orange fondant, I cut out round circles for the polka dots.  The yellow stripes were flattened using a pasta machine and cut evenly using my cutting mat.  I made the border using a clay extruder (it's a really easy tool to help make your fondant come out in a particular shape).

I'm looking forward to making my next fondant cake soon.  As far as cake classes, I have one more to take (Course 3)-- the instructor gives the classes out of order- so I will start again in April.