A Sweet Life Cakery

Ok, so this isn't really cake but edible it is.  I can't say I have seen any instructions on the web for creating fondant heads so here is a glimpse into what I do in creating cake faces.  As long as you have an imagination, you can create any type of face you want.  I don't have any formal sculpting classes so I do what comes to me naturally and just keep playing with it until it comes out the way I want it.  I will say, however, it is helpful to look at books with instructions on drawing because this gives you a little better idea how to proportion and line up the facial features.  I like to have a visual on paper so I can keep looking at it while sculpting features.

I start with a wire cage.  It's about 8 very long heavy gauge wires tied in the middle and folded down and bent to make a bolloon shape.

I cover the wire cage with aluminum foil and the over it with Crispy treats and press it together really well so it all sticks nice and snug.  I slipped a dowel in the bottom and stuck it in styro for a while to set a little before I start the next step of adding the face. 

Once the Crispy base has set up you can start creating the face.  This part is tricky as there cannot be any drafts from your a/c nearby or it will dry out too soon and not allow you to mold the face.  The face is contoured with white fondant using shortening to keep the tips of your fingers moist as you sculpt the face.  When not working on the face, lightly wrap it in plastic wrap to prevent drying out.

So this is the base of the face.  It looks a little rough but basically you want to get the underlying pronounced features formed so when you overlay with the flesh tone fondant it's all smooth and perfect.  I molded the facial features by hand and kept manipulating the fondant to get the features I wanted. 

Once you have the base features roll out flesh tone fondant thinly and overlay it on the base.  From there gently manipulate to get the features to come out.  I used a curved wire to put into the crease of the mouth to get the smile.  If you get any air pockets, try to pin prink them through the unnoticable areas like the mouth or the nostrl or behind the eye as you will put an eye in that spot.  From this point you will use cutters to make the eyes and roll out eye brows or whatever you want your cake-head to look like.  Brush color on the lips and if you want dust the cheeks, etc.

This is what she ultimately came out to look like.  Her one eye is a little off center (lazy eye, LOL) but these are things that obviously can be adjusted.  This was one of the heads I made.  If you look in my photo gallery, I use the same concept to create Betty Boop, Japanese Fairy, Minnie Mouse, etc. It's all the same. No science to it but it's my crazy method. 

If you are a cake freak like me, I hope this has helped because I know there isn't too much out there to show instruction.  You can make these heads to vary in size. I use wire and crispy treats because otherwise the head is so heavy of pure gumpaste or fondant that the cake can be too top heavy but I still wanted to keep it edible. 

I'll keep ya posted if I do anything else.

Here is the Japanese Fairy done with the same process: