The Little Mermaid

This was my first attempt at sculpting modeling chocolate. It has the same "moldability" as clay, but not the same strength. I first had to construct the figure of Ariel out of wire and rice krispies, then covered that in modeling chocolate. I was fairly happy with the majority of the mermaid, but could not get her face the way I wanted it! Once the modeling chocolate is warm from being in your hands, it is extremely easy to manipulate, to a fault. The slightest movement could cause the whole face to mess up, so after 45 minutes of working on it, I decided I had better "let it be" than risk messing it up even further! The seaweed and water were all made from buttercream, and I topped off the blue water with blue sparkles. My sister got me new alphabet cutters (my old ones were horrible!!), and they worked perfectly for this cake! I dusted each letter with pearl luster dust (a very subtle and shimmery, completely edible powder) and like the looks of it so much that I coated the rest of the bubblegum pink fondant with it, too! The inside of the cake was my absolute favorite cake and filling combination-strawberry cake with chocolate ganache.