My daughter wants this cake for her upcoming birthday and I have a few questions.

1) Do you think the skirt is just one big piece of fondant or would you do several smaller pieces of fondant folded and pleated to make the skirt?

2) The little roses at the top of the dress and the swirls at the top of the skirt, would you make these out of fondant or gum paste?

3) What size of cake pans do you think they used here? and I am guessing each part (top and bottom) are probably 3 or 4 layers? or more?

4) The crown, I was planning on making this out of gum paste, do you think the scrolls/swirls were still soft when constructed or dried first and then "glued" together?

Thanks for any help you can give me!!

Hello there! I can try to help but I'm not sure I have all the right answers but I will give my opinion

1. I think the skirt is all one piece pleated however you could probably get away with doing it in a few pieces if you needed to. You would just have to be strategic about the way you pleated it.

2. I think the little roses and swirls would be fine to make out of fondant because they are so small but if you have gumpaste as well that would work too or you could do a 50/50 mix. I personally would just use straight fondant.

3. I'm not the best at size guessing so I wouldn't trust this one but I would say either 6" and 8" or even 4" and 6". The tiers do look taller than 4" to me maybe 6"  should be 3 layers if using 2" pans??

4. The crown is definitely soft pieces of gumpaste. Glue the pieces together while soft using gum glue and allow to dry for a few days. Very important to let it dry long enough or it will fall apart. I made a tiara topper for my daughters birthday (my first fondant cake...it's in my pictures) and I seriously made it 4 times because I just couldn't leave it alone long enough to let it dry!!

Good luck and I hope I helped a little :)

I think Shannon pretty much nailed it, but I personally would do the skirt in pieces or sections.  Just because for me would be easier to work the fondant without pulling.  I did a fondant dress many years ago on a grand scale.  You have to match the pieces and the ends fold under.