Please help me with my bat cake!

[Grytviken]

My DD has requested a bat cake for her 4th birthday, I do bake, but have not done much cake decorating.

I have found this Bat Cake which I'm going to have a go at. I have a 9" cake pan and was going to do a 7 egg Madeira chocolate sponge, does that sound about right?

Where I could really do with some advice is the icing, I've ordered a Wilton grass icing tip, but am worried my usual buttercream icing will be a bit soft, not too keen on the icing in the recipe I've linked to. What icing could I use to give a medium piping consistency that hardens up a bit? She is especially fond of fruit bats, so I was just going to do a chocolate icing rather than use food colouring to give a brown bat.

Many thanks!

[MollyHuaCha]

It looks brilliant.

IME the success of a cake is down to the facial expression, so position your eyes and mouth carefully.

Chocolate icing sounds lovely.

Good luck and please post a picture of your finished cake.