Fondant icing virgin needs help with birthday cake

[gybegirl]

Help!

I'm making (or going to try to make) one of those barbie cakes (cake in the bottom and shove a barbie in the top so the cake looks like her skirt) for my DD's birthday next week.

See here for how it's done properly Fairy
Clearly mine is going to look nothing like Jane Asher's but hey, she's 4 and won't mind and it won't cost £295!

Now I come to the main problem...

I've only ever used butter icing before and have no clue about how to make / use fondant icing.
Any handy hints would be appreciated!

Oh and I can't buy ready rolled as I live in the sticks.

You can buy it in a box and just add water, they sell it at our asda so you might be lucky. I make these all the time, very popular with girls age 3-6! If you don't manage to get hold of fondant, I often cover it with smoothed butter cream, then leave a /\ shape smoth but cover the rest with rows of piping bag rosettes. Stck some nice sprinkles on the /\ shape, edible glitter is my best friend

most supermarkets sell fondant - is usually called sugarpaste. you will need to colour it - use paste colours, or if you cannot get hold of paste colours a tiny bit of liquid for a subtle colour.

knead the colour in till even, then roll out using rolling pin and icing sugar on surface to stop it sticking.

you will want a thin layer of buttercream on th cake so the sugarpaste sticks, smooth it down with your hands, rub it gently to smooth cracks and make it shine.

if you really can't find any in the shops you have I will dig out a recipe, but even my local co-op has it in stock.

Ta Trebuchet. You sound very domestic godess like

I have edible glitter. Do you think it looks better with the piped roses and glitter or the fondant icing?

X-posts Panda G. Thanks very much for the tips.

Who on earth would pay £295 for a CAKE!!!!???

Debka. Clearly someone who gets paid more than me (SAHM). It's not even the most expensive. Check out this one www.janeasher.co.uk/bespokeask.php?item=507&title=Carriage. It's £430.

To Miss Jane Asher. I do have to agree that it may be the nicest birthday cake I ever seen. But I'm still not selling a kidney so my DD can have it .