This cake was made for a wonderful soldier and his wife for their first year wedding anniversary. He absolutely loves dragons! The body and part of the tail are french vanilla cake, and the rest of it is either fondant or Crayola model magic covered in fondant. Model magic is WAY lighter than fondant, and is non-toxic. I still separated it from touching cake with a thin layer of fondant. The dragon scale look is just fondant rolled out onto a textured florescent light cover. ($4 at your local hardware store)