Ruth's unicorn cake

We baked Ruth's cakes yesterday afternoon and this afternoon was allocated to the decorating.
I had invested in a bigger rolling mat (and rolling pin) and I am so pleased with it. This was my first every cake to get covered with fondant and have NO creases. It's not that easy to get the sides of a round cake to sit flat without folds. I think what really helped was that with the lines on the mat I could get the size almost exactly right. I was also able to pick the whole piece up (on the mat) and place it right in the centre (the mat is slightly see-through).

So I wasn't working with way too much on the sides, and it was possibly a bit thicker than with others (from not needing to make sure it was big enough). I always knew the principles on how to get it to work, so it was wonderful to finally managed to do it myself.
Ruth and I had made this unicorn earlier in the week, so it was dry enough to paint today. I had bought some gold edible powder paint. It worked really well.

Once the unicorn's face was on the time consuming work was the main. I had suggested just rolling out the colours and cutting the strips, bur Ruth specifically wanted round (not flat) hair. So we spent more time doing it this way. She struggled to make the long strands, so I did that for her and she placed them.

Using water to "stick" them on.

Once we had done the face she was able to add the horn.

It was the first time we have used edible "paint" so there is a lot of learning still needed with this. It did help add a lot of depth to the unicorn's face. It wasn't as great as I would have liked, but not bad for a first attempt. I am not an artist at all, so faces are not something I generally enjoy doing.
Ruth was pleased with the outcome.

The cake went to school on Monday for her to enjoy it with her class. I was sick in bed, so Brendon eventually came home and so he was able to take the cake to school.
Oops - eyes closed for the photo. :-)
Brendon then had the hard job of cutting it up to feed almost 30 people. Well done Brendon.