How do I get the balloon on cake to "float"? - Page 2

just stick a hole in each rear leg at a bit of an angle

so that later you can re-slide a long toothpick or a bamboo skewer into there to counterbalance the weight and pull of the balloon

i'd poke the bottom of the leg and twist it up in there

you can remove it while it dries then reapply it to assemble it

so long as you have the hole there to counter balance you'll be able to float the balloon

or you can dry it with the skewers stuck into foam too

do this in stages

no not fondant--they come covered with paper--you can buy them that way

or they flip around on you

no worries--

if you make a spiral out of it down in the leg it will not flip

you have to anchor it somehow

the straw is a good idea

depending on which route you take

Sounds like we're doing the same thing this weekend! I have a little GP elephant sitting down with one leg extended into the air, and there will be about 5 balloons floating above him. Already have everything done, but won't make the illusion of the balloons floating away from him until I assemble the cake. Not sure what I'll be doing to accomplish that quite yet, but it will involve using extruded fondant string to fool the eye into thinking that the elephant is holding the balloons, but really the very long wires will be anchored into the cake. I just kinda figure that out as I go. This time, I just rolled balls of GP into balloon shapes and stuck paper covered into them.

Ok to me, I see one string, and it goes straight into the cake. I think it's just an illusion of photography that fools the eye into thinking the elephant is holding it at all.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuma_couture_cakes/8254614793/in/photostream

This has some floating balloons. The balloons on the front are actually anchored straight in with wire, and the very top one inserted into the top of the manger. All the "strings" are just for show.

haha, wow AZCouture. I'm sure you have solved the mystery. I have seen Naomi's cake before and always wondered how the balloon stayed upright looking like it was floating. But your idea makes so much sense. 

P.S. The cake linked is the bomb! Wow. 

When I did this cake, the balloons were fondant with CMC added, which were then put onto wires.  To stop the balloons moving around, the end of the wire in the balloon has a tiny 'hook' bent into it.

In the UK, we're not allowed to put wires directly into a cake, so they're inserted into a 'posy pick' which is then put into the cake.

http://www.patacake-parties.com/Birthday/files/page5-1060-full.html

HTH

Suzanne x