Fondant Unicorn Cake Topper

Cute doesn't come naturally for me.  Attempts at cute wind up being monstrous abominations (not that I view this as a bad thing). So I'm just as surprised as anyone that this adorable little guy was made by me.  I did have a little help from this wonderful video from MovieTrollop, "How to make a SUPER EASY horse and/or pony".  There's no way I would've come up with this on my own. Left to my own devices I would've been flailing all over the place. Even though the tutorial is for making tiny (an inch?) little horse bodies out of polymer clay, it easily translated to a five inch fondant body.  She starts by showing the size of all the balls of clay that are needed in proportion to each other, from there it's easy to make a body of any size. 

I used Wilton fondant.  I read quite a few recommendations that Wilton is a good brand for newbies, at least for this type of thing, as it tends to be stiffer.  It seemed like most professionals use higher grade fondants with hardening agents mixed in.  I don't plan to become proficient at fondant, so Wilton is fine for the likes of me. I'm happy to leave real cake decorating to true artists. 

I also read that Wilton is one of the worse tasting fondants, but then does anyone actually eat this stuff?  I've never heard anyone say, "Oh you have to try this fondant it's so delicious." Probably the highest compliment I've heard anyone give any particular fondant is, "It doesn't taste horrible." That folks, is not enough of a reason for me to put something in my mouth. 

For this guy I used most of a 24oz package.  I used about two-thirds of it for the body, legs, ears and nostrils. It is definitely softer than polymer clay. After forming the body, I turned it over, and stuck a toothpick through each front leg and one through the base of the body into the head, for a little added support.  Then I flipped it back over and added the nostrils and ears.  I brushed the whole thing with Wilton white pearl dust and then added the eyes which are round black candies. Then I set a parchment paper tent over it to protect from dust and let it set for a while.  The front legs did get tiny wrinkles, like elephant legs, from the weight of the head pressing down, but no one but me seems to have noticed. 

I colored some of remaining fondant using Wilton neon gel colors.  I made the horn using the same process I used to make the polymer clay horns.  I used a teeny bit purple and a teeny bit blue fondant marbled with white. I stuck a toothpick two thirds into the horn and then stuck the other end into the head. The hair is the opposite with a lot of purple and blue marbled with a teeny bit white.  I brushed on a little bit of water to attached the hair. Here's a few shots from different angles. 

I let it dry out for a few days in a deep dish covered with parchment paper.  Besides keeping dust off, I also read that light can fade colored fondant.  My daughter wanted to keep him, so to prevent getting frosting on him, I cut out the bottom of a paper plate to match the unicorns bottom and set that down on the cake first.  I don't know how long he'll last, but for now he's in a bell jar, in a cool place that gets very limited light.  He hasn't melted or faded or attracted bugs or seeped any of his cutest into the rest of my realm.