Egyptian birthday cake!!!HELP

[barnstaple]

dd's 8th birthday next week. She wants her cake to be a Tutankhamun head. I think I can make a pretty OK sponge (she wants glace cherries mixed in with it, as treasure). I have a very shallow plastic King Tut mould (for papier mache) which I thought I could press onto the cooked cake and cut round for basic shape and then, hey presto just decorate. But I have no idea how I can do the gold colour required! Assuming I can't afford gold leaf (ha), anyone got any ideas?

Also, ideas for party bags very welcome!

Not asking much then! You can buy a gold lustre dust that you could dust over yellow icing maybe?
As for party bags, you could have the green triangle chocs from Quality Street, since there kinda Pyramid shaped or how about some cheap gold looking bangles from Primark, going on the treasure/jewels theme?

You can get edible gold paint -- just pop into your local cake decorating supply store (if you have one) and explain what you want it for.

Thanks MaureenMLove, what's this dust stuff like? Is it just like dusting with icing sugar or will it give good coverage?!

Wow, never heard of edible gold paint - sounds perfect. Don't have a cake decorating supply store but will google it... Thanks both of you.

Here you are. Scroll down the page for the dusting powder. I've only ever used it to make a fairy castle sparkle, so I'm not sure how good the coverage would.

gold leaf isn't actually as stupidly expensive as it sounds - try here.
You could even use the mould for roll-out icing, or to make a white chocolate plaque to go on top of a flat cake...

Great Egyptian gifts in the British Museum Shop too

Now that's a good idea, MrsBadger. I have been very vague about how to get the detail of the head on to the cake. One of those it'll be alright on the night moments with large helpings of ostrich-head-behaviour mixed in!

I googled edible gold paint and found shop just down the road from where I used to live! AND I've just spent 3 days down there staying with my brother!

Don't forget to play the Mummy Wrap game!

I think that Playmobil make a little Mummy figure - maybe for a pass the parcel prize?

I like the suggestion of bangles for party bags; Toblerones are also pyramid shaped!

There are also a few ideas here - haven't looked at them though so don't know how useful they are:

www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/egyptian_party.html

Thanks to everyone! We had a great time and dd says it was the best birthday ever! I was so proud of the cake I showed it to everyone! I used regal icing and pressed it into the mould(mold?). A newsagent down the road sold edible gold paint and also edible gold glitter (with which I dusted EVERYTHING!). We had a woman come over with pottery for the kids to paint so the first hour was very quiet (!!!) and then they ran around in house and garden until we'd got food on the table, then ate, played again for a bit and then went home. Pretty painless really.