As with my previous dino, I started with the rice krispie sculpture. Good to know I still can find time to put those art courses I took in college to good use. My former design instructor used to yell at all of us first year graphic design students in her thick German accent- "MORE SCULPTURAL!! Make your design more sculptural!!!" She was, as it turns out, a professor of sculpture. Imagine that.
Rice krispy as a medium is not the best, but it is also not the worst. If you know from the start what you want your piece to look like, working with the krispies still hot and melty is perfect. However, it sucks if you change your mind later- which I did, over and over. Poor Mr. Dino was constructed and deconstructed for hours before I was satisfied with what I ended up with- what you see above.
I covered the dino with marshmallow fondant (one of my favorite mediums to work with!) that had been rolled on a pebble texture mat. Additional details for the tummy texture, wrinkles in the legs, etc., were all textured by hand using various tools and a lot of patience.
As you can see from my pics, I was fighting the laws of physics from the start. I wanted my dino to have a head and tail that stood out from his body, but gravity said that wasn't such a bright idea. We duked it out for a while, with me giving in on the tail but remaining stubborn about the head. I'd already done a sleeping dino! This one must be awake!! In the meantime I compromised using various items to hold up the dino's head.
By the end of the day (or rather during some point in the wee hours of the morning of the party), Mr. Dino lost his head. It was a sad state of affairs, but I managed to keep my cool... for the most part. I ended up stabilizing the head and neck with marshmallows hidden underneath. They blended perfectly with the frosting, so unless I pointed it out, you wouldn't have noticed. However, if you were to look closely at the pic, you can see the tiny crack where gravity made its mark.
In the end all turned out okay and the client, my son, was quite pleased- and that's the most important part!
The dino- rice krispy covered in MMF with details etched in and piped on with buttercream and a little luster dust to add dimension to the scales.
The cake- standard sheet cake, triple chocolate with black raspberry filling, covered in almond buttercream. Most of the cake decoration is buttercream, with the exception of the pond, which is MMF, the big rock which is a krispie coated in MMF and the little rocks which are chocolate rock candy.
