Rufus

Is it irrational to get attached to a pet you've created? I know I sound like a complete nutter, but just look at him!

Look at his BIG BLACK EYES and don't tell me you haven't fallen instantly in love with him!

Anyways, to put the whole lot into context, this was a cake I made over the weekend for a father-daughter celebration. The little one-year-old loves puppies, so I decided to try my hand at 'modelling'. Here's a very brief look at the steps I took:

1. Colour your fondant - you'll need brown for the puppy's body, black and white for his eyes, and a little dark pink for his tongue.

2. Take a large piece of brown fondant, and roll out his body in a slightly conical shape. Roll two smaller balls for his legs, with one end thicker than the other. Flatten the thicker end, fold the ends to meet, and attach to the sides of the dog's body. Use a knife to impress the "paws". Repeat with longer ends for the two middle legs.

3. Next, roll a small ball and flatten it for his collar. Then roll a large ball for his head, with a thinner end that you'll flatten onto itself for his snout. Use a small circle cutter and leaf veiner (or any other tool that has a dipped edge) to impress and indent his mouth.

4. Attach the head onto the body by spearing a small piece of spaghetti through the body and collar, and spearing (gulp!) his head at a slight angle to it - gives him some character!

5. Indent a small hole at the back of his body, and roll a piece of pointy fondant and attach as his tail. You can make it curly, or straight and pointy, which I did, it's up to you!

5. Next, make two small teardrop shape balls, flatten one end, attach the corner and let the ear flop over itself. Tweak so they have erm...personality?

6. Roll a tiny teardrop shape of pink fondant for his tongue, impress with leaf veiner and attach to his mouth.

 Arf! Arf!

 

 My work area

 The finished cake!

Since the cake was also for the father, I decided to use brown lettering for "Happy Birthday", and trimmed the base with tiny pink Scottish terriers. Although a friend of mine did say that from a distance, they looked like a row of pink porkies...HUMPH.

You can see the other Puppy-themed cakes I've done here.

By the way, it's MARKET WEEK!! See you this Sunday at the North Melbourne market!!

(Gah, I totally forgot to post about the Southside Market we were at, mostly because I forgot to take pictures, but here are some very lovely ones from their facebook page, do check them out!)