Gosh it's been a while. Been busy and frequenting other corners of the Internet. Anyway, while the Internet is awesome, I felt that it failed me lately when I couldn't find a tute to show me how to make a carousel horse for Clementine's birthday cake. I had to *gasp* be creative all by myself. Eep.
So, to help others who may want so tips, here is how I did it! First, find a picture, or draw one. I can't draw as well as a 4 year old, so I used google and printed off this pic.
Then I used some clear sheet (overhead projector sheets in this case) and traced around the bits of the image I wanted to use.
I wanted it to be a bit more 3d, so for my first tracing I ignored the legs on the far side, and for the 2nd I ignored the legs on the near side and filled in the gaps with my imagination. I was left with these two shapes which I cut out.
Now we are up to making the horse. I made marshmellow fondant - its awesome, you melt marshmallows and mix in icing sugar and hey presto fondant! Roll up a ball of fondant in your hand and then roll it out, mine was probably about 7mm thick.
Using something sharp to trace around the outline of your horse. You can see my fondant is cranking at the sides, because I am dodgy and it got too dry before making this horse. Obviously you will be better than me and not let your fondant dry out.
With a sharp implement cut away the fondant around the horse. I like this bit, it's like being an archeologist and excavating an exciting object. When it is all cut out, use your fingers to smooth the edges and any dodgy bits.
Go and do likewise with the second shape.
To make this a carousel horse, you're going to need to stick it on a pole. I'm using dowels from the shop that sells cake deco stuff, these will hold up the 2nd tier of cake as well. I intend to wrap them with ribbon and make them pretty but for now I just want to make sure that I have a hole big enough for them. Press the rod gently onto the back piece of your horse, then paint the piece with some water. It just melts the fondant a bit and creates a glue to hold the front piece on. Now put the front piece on top, smoothing it around the pole shape. My fondant cracked a little bit (I mentioned it was dry) but I'll cover that in a bit anyway. Give the dowel a twist to make sure it is free to move, you don't want it stuck there yet.
At this point I make sure all the bits on the horse match and smooth away bumps that looks funny etc. Making sure that the front and back are joined so that you now have a horse with 4 legs and a hole through it.
We're up to the saddle! Colour a small piece of fondant to make the horse saddle. I used gel colours because they work great and don't melt the fondant. Roll it out thin - like 2mm and cut out your saddle shape. Mine is very plain but you can go crazy if you want to, you have my permission.
Hello horsey with a saddle. I took the pole out, put the saddle on and poked the pole back through. Use the water paint/glue thing to stick the saddle to Mr Horse.
To make the mane, colour more fondant and roll a piece out nice and thin, 1mm if you can. I cut a funny shape that I will crinkle to make the mane look volumous, like as if the pony uses Pantene and floops it about to to make other horses jealous. (Also, see the stars? I have these nifty little star punches that I got from eBay for $3. Seeing as I didn't need the saddle fondant any more, I cut the scraps into stars to use later for the cake, or just as decorations for cupcakes or cookies or something.)
Arrange the mane piece on the horse, I still don't know the best way to do it, but you know, do what works, and when you like what you have, water/glue that toupee down. Next make a tail shape with the same colour as your mane, and cut a wedge out of Mr. Horse's bottom. Wet the pointy bit of the tail, and stick it into the wedge, squishing right in. In this case my tail was a bit long and I shortened it before sticking it in.
To finish, remove the pole, you will stick it back on when the fondant has dried and you are setting up your cake. I stuck a little star on Mr. Horse's saddle before putting him out to pasture with his buddies. They are all super jealous and want a star now too. If you were fancier than me, you could add all sorts of details with royal icing, like eyes, mouth, bridle, stirrups, whatever. The world is your oyster (yuck!) go forth and make fondant horses!
