making a person out of icing, i have questions

[minimuffy]

I have decided to make DDs birthday cake, it not till Dec 1st tho. So i attempted to ice a cake with marzipan and fondant icing, all went well, even managed to dye some icing to make a 'ribbon' over it.

but Im wanting to make a wee model of dd to top it with her fav cuddly toy. But i want to attempt a couple of 'testers' to see if its feasable!

so here are my questions:

how far in advance can i make a model

can you freeze icing?

pre coloured stuff is expensive, will i be ok dying it myself? or is there somewhere i can get small amounts of icing?

cheers!

thank you :-)

how long do yet let them dry out for?

Hi mini, i made a model of a little girl recently, pic on my profile, i made it a week or two before i made the cake.

oh wow, they are amazing nannycook!

what did you use for eyes?

how far in advance can i make a model Way in advance. I still have my city and guilds certificate pieces from 20 years ago.

can you freeze icing? NO. Sugar is hydrophilic so if you freeze it would defrost as a nasty, slimey gloopy mess

pre coloured stuff is expensive, will i be ok dying it myself? or is there somewhere i can get small amounts of icing? You will need paste colours to get the intensity of colour you want. Regalice do 250g packs of precoloured icing that are about £1.60 so you could just buy a couple of those and make sure you keep your model "colour coordinated"

mini i painted them on, the head was made with a mould, gives you all the indentations, eyes, neck, even ears, blushed her cheeks with powder etc.

I will be attempting a trial tomorrow, will post pictures when i get the chance!

also, i dont have any tragacanth, is there anything else i could use to harden it?
could i bake it or will it dry out and harden in time?

Mini, i didnt use tragacanth, i just used the fondant called modelling fondant, its a small packet about 250grms and costs about £2.50. If you attempt to make it just out of fondant it will be so soft and may break, i know i've made daisies and gerberas out of ordinary fondant because i thought i could get away with it and they broke as soon as i moved them.