this was for my daughters 4th birthday, christmas eve, but we celebrated it on new years eve with my inlaws in georgia. i had to freeze the cake so it would make the 9 hour journey intact, and we decided to celebrate early, so the fondant didn't fully get time to come back to normal, and that's the reason blue is so shiny. overall, i was very pleased with my first attempt at a dog, and the look on my daughters face was priceless!