Modeling Chocolate!

Wow! I discovered my new favorite cake-decorating thing! Modeling chocolate is wonderful to work with, it holds its shape better than fondant and is more malleable than gumpaste--plus, it doesn't dry out and crack. The only difficulty I ran into was that it got too soft from the warmth of my hands a few times. All I needed to do was run my hands under cold water.

I discovered all this when I was making a birthday cake for my daughter in May. She had requested a woodland cake, and, inspired by some lovely cakes on Cakecentral, I came up with this:

The cake was chocolate, filled with raspberry jam, and covered with marshmallow fondant. The grass was buttercream, and everything else was modeling chocolate.

I think my favorites were the hedgehogs and toadstools :-)