Hi, Im working on a cigar box cake and I wanted to do an ashtray with a cigar that looks lit and has ashes in it...I have no clue how to do this..any suggestions please??

This one looks like they just put some white on the end:
http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Bloomin.Cakes.980-581-7689/picture/view/1897833
This one looks like a combination of brown and beige:
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/wildorchidbaking/4373730475/
This one looks like white with silver:
http://www.myspace.com/sweetdesignscakery/photos/50459922
This one says "ashes made with fondant, powdered sugar, and luster dust":
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1575121/ashtray-cigar-cake
This one says it's coconut, obviously colored gray:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/rph/24/282689/521874/portland-pambiche-cuban-cigar-cake-ash-is-coconut-photo

I made ashes simply by adding a bit of black color to melted white chocolate to make it gray. Let it harden on waxed or parchment paper, then grate it with a fine grater. spoon it onto your ashtray in a mound. If you handle it with your hands it will melt with the warmth of your hands so I used a spoon.

If you microwave some grey royal icing you'll get something crispy & meringue-like that you can crumble up when cold, I reckon that would make pretty good ashes, if you mixed some with a tiny bit of melted white choc you might be able to shape it into the ash bit on the end of a cigar that drops off (thats my technical description )
Hope that helps!

ps- I do this with all leftover bright coloured royal- it makes great corals for ocean cakes

spoon it onto your ashtray in a mound. If you handle it with your hands it will melt with the warmth of your hands so I used a spoon.

Thank you all very much!!!!

there's also "candy coal" .. i've used this recipe to make something to look like gravel.

tutorial from "Sprinkle Bakes"

http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2011/11/christmas-coal-candy.html