I'm mostly asking this for future reference, since my idea for dealing with arms in a 3D cake failed me on my husband's birthday cake.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2171082

Basically, what I did here was used dowel rods fastened together to form the bend, covered them with fondant and such. I just stuck the arms in, and I knew they would fall out. I was pressed for time and the cake wasn't going to be delivered anywhere.

But does anyone have any idea on how I could have done these better? Is there a way to build the structure with the arms attached and still manage to make the entire trunk out of cake?

TIA!

I've never tried on for a cake but I think if it were me I might do something like I did on the skate board cake for the trucks.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1219978

The center part of the trucks was an hollow dowel round, and then the parts connecting the tires was a regular wooden dowel rod. We drilled a hole in the hollow dowel to slide the other one through.

For a cake, if you have a big center piece coming up, you could drill a hole through two sides and use a dowel through to help support the two arms. If possible I'd use a hollow one and then you can insert the end of the arms part inside of it.

Did any of that make sense? Not 100% sure it would work, but it is probably how I would go about it.

That made perfect sense! Thanks. I'll definitely try that next time.