Making a cake with fondant

For Mabel's birthday this year, she repeatedly requested a 'Shaun the Sheep' cake. Shaun is from a show that Luke & Mabel watch together ... I had suspicions that Luke had suggested this is what she should have and this is where her request came from. When I asked what flavor she wanted, all she would tell me is that she wanted Shaun the Sheep. I started doing a little looking around and found a video of someone who'd make a Black Forest Shaun Cake. Mabel really, really loves fruit and it made sense to do one with fruit in it.

I'd never worked with fondant before and it scared me a bit, but I had noticed a recipe to make your own using marshmallows. We had some stale ones in our cabinet from our last camping trip, so I gave it a try. It was actually very easy and Luke loved helping. I made the cake layers and cut out the shapes for the head earlier in the week and had put those in the freezer, so when Mabel's big day arrived, it was somewhat easy to put it all together.

I used WAY more cherries than the recipe called for ... and probably a lot more whipped cream too!
It looked so pretty at this stage I really didn't want to add the "decorations" but since it was Mabel's birthday ...

Before {and after} his final coat -- the kids thought it looked like he'd been sheared!

Mabel could not stop looking at the cake to even look at the camera.  Guess that means it was a success :)