Well, it was my first time working with fondant and gumpaste and I used the store bought stuff. I don't know what *good* fondant/gumpaste is suppose to taste like, but I took a nibble of what I had when I was working on it and it was truly disgusting. I can't even describe the flavor - like a sort of plasticy weird sweet lardy biscuit dough. I had my girls try a nibble just to show them how awful it tasted (they wanted to know if we could eat the penguins after they were made.) They hated it, too. So no snacking on them later, hehe. The penguins were hard as a rock and I doubt anyone could have taken a bite without breaking a tooth anyway.

The beaks, cheeks, wings (flippers?), hats, feet... everything was adhered with just water, so they would have fallen apart in the hands of 7 and 8 year olds right away. It's a mental thing, I know, but after spending a couple of weeks worth of staying up until 2 and 3 in morning making them, I did hate the thought of handing them over to little ones at the party when I knew they'd just fall to pieces within minutes (and no way was fixing everyone's "broken" penguin). We were having another party one week later and I did think about reusing them, but I had no time to make another big cake and tons of frosting again. So, my girls have enjoyed peeking into the plastic container in our pantry every now and then and looking at their penguins. I guess they are just sugary keepsakes of sorts, or at least until they start disintegrating, or melting, or whatever that does, lol.

Jolisa, you did a wonderful job on your penguin cake. It's darling! I wish you much success in your future cake making adventures. There is nothing so satisfying as making our kids' cakes ourselves - and it's so much fun (whether we keep our sugar creations or not, lol *wink*).

Keep up the good work!

~Kim (aka Uber-mom)