Cute Pony Cake

I was asked to make a birthday cake for a 3 year old girl who loves ponies, and this cake was the result!

I put a lot of elements into this cake, from the cereal treat/ fondant/ modeling chocolate pony adorning the top of the cake to the little molded, hand painted fondant ponies running around the sides.  I tied everything together with buttercream grass and fondant fantasy flowers.

To make the top pony, I molded rice krispies treats around some skewers and toothpicks.  Here he is with 3 legs...

Then I covered the whole thing in a blend of modeling chocolate and fondant.

It was hot and humid, and I had a terrible time with things melting.  I had to trim down the skewers and in the process the legs almost buckled.  So the pony had pretty big feet when all was said and done, but at least he pulled through. :)

I used a clay gun to extrude stringy fondant for the mane and tail, then I added little bows.  I covered the whole body in white sparkle luster dust to add to the fantasy/ girliness of the whole thing.

 The birthday girl's name was Pam, so I put it on little hearts on the pony's body.  Here is the completed pony:

Meanwhile, I baked, stacked, filled, and iced my chocolate blackout cake with buttercream icing.  I stuck 4 straws into the cake to support the pony's feet, and stuck him on with a little buttercream. 

I iced this cake using the upside-down technique, though I ended up re-smoothing the top because of air bubbles and wrinkles in the parchment.  However, I was really happy with the result.  Then, I molded 4 fondant ponies in a chocolate mold and hand painted each one with various luster dusts in purple, blue, and pink.

They were heavier than I'd envisioned, so I had to let them rest on the board a little bit.  Also, if I had it to do over, I would have painted the details on after they were on the cake so that the surface would have been less dry when I went to attach them to the rounded cake side.

Then I started adding some green pastures, and a triple shell border around the top.

I finished the whole thing off with some fondant fantasy flowers, and piped in the centers.

Happy Birthday to Pam and I hope she liked her pony cake!