A 4" dummy cake covered in fondant, with a watercolor cherry blossom tree painted on, and a hand-molded origami fondant crane on top.

I envisioned this cake many months ago, but I didn’t feel the need to bake a whole cake just for a little decorating practice. I ordered a couple dummies from Dallas Foam, and as soon as I got them, I covered it and started painting. I had meant to use gumpaste for the crane, but it had dried up, so I had to use fondant. Since fondant isn’t as great as gumpaste for figures, I ran into a few problems with it. After a couple days overcoming the problems, it finally came together, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

Thanks to my dummies, I can finally get some decorating practice in without having to bake cake all the time.