This cake was made for my father-in-law; Brim was made using a 1:1 mixture of fondant & gumpaste, rolled out and cut using a template from a real hat, which I then turned upside down and placed cut brim over (plastic wrap covering real hat to protect it) and let it dry for a couple days. The platic wrap created some very cool (unintentional) ridges within the brim that made it look weather, just like real leather. The hat portion was a 3 layer yellow cake, filled with chocolate buttercream frosting. I let it set up than carved out the desired shape. When frosting the cake, I again used the chocolate buttercream, and did many thin layers of frosting, using a small spatula, and by hand to create the desired effect (very clean hands ;). I used some remained fondant/gumpast (tinted a bit darker) to make the braid, then attached it with a bead of buttercream. Many people commented that they almost picked it up and put it on, not realizing it was a cake!