That's gorgeous, any thought on how to make the cotton though? BC I think would be too heavy looking and fondant too smooth although I could get  a rough look to it I'm not sure how 'cotton-y' it would look. Modelling chocolate would be the same.

Although maybe covered in icing sugar?

smooshed white sandwich bread would have a chance at looking cottony i think

or chunks of angel food cake

maybe make the top tier toped with cotton candy a big fluffy ball of it

AHow about going in an entirely different direction and doing a Japanese Cotton Cake? That one has been on my list for awhile.............

AIn my head I'm picturing using a 3d fondant cloud technique with texturing and shading with a really light grey dust to get the "fluffy" effect. Man, now I want to go home and try to make cotton.

ACotton candy turns into a little heap of sticky goo really quickly in anything above 0% humidity. (Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but not much!)

i have not made this particular recipe -- but i really like joy of baking website in general so-- it will steer you right -- 

it's basically a cake made of meringue that you cool upside down so it keeps it's height--i mean you can bake it in loaf pans too--

and you can tell from the picture that it would be cotton-y-- although it bakes 4-5" tall it's very soft cake

http://www.joyofbaking.com/AngelFoodCake.html

but angel food cake is just beaten egg whites and a little sugar, flour & flavor-- it's fat free too-- then don't open the oven early! aghhh--

it's lovely served with strawberries--we always turned ours upside down on soda pop bottles to cool...when they used to be made out of glass that is  

Thanks K8, so if I understand it correctly I wouldn't cover the cotton balls?

that's how i would do it--and it might dry a bit on the outside but it won't affect anything--and yes i'd just use this to make the cotton bolls ---- i'd just leave them fluffy looking y'know

Great, thanks so much everyone.

I wonder where they got the idea to do cotton for the first anniversary, when it's traditionally paper.......maybe they're just going to skip ahead each year.

HI everyone,

I'm still wondering about this, do you think spun sugar will work?

if you fashioned it into the stem and leaves it would give the nod to cotton bolls-- it would work as in creating the illusion using some poetic license -- plus it would be more dazzling-- i'm envisioning winding it up in a ball and sticking it in there--rather than little strings all over -- small nests --

but making it white might be a challenge -- idk-- titanium dioxide is kinda weird -- it might be easy but i've never used it w/hot sugar --

but shoot-- white buttercream would do the same thing and a little better --even fondant or marzipan, a white chocolate dipped bonbon would too

Thanks K8, I like the idea of white buttercream. I can sort of see that working if I do it correctly.

I like the idea of spun sugar but as you said not sure about how to get it white.

maybe test out some white buttercream with some powdered sugar sprinkled on it-- maybe sprinkle it from a seive and if you can just dunk the ball of buttercream into powdered sugar -- so it jsut has a rough hewn but fluffy white texture-- i think that would be muy authentic or should i say beaucoups authentic

Thanks K8 that sounds like a plan, plus I appreciate you pointing out how to do it as I'm not great at visualizing, I'll try that tomorrow morn. I'm determined to take the rest of today off, (it's trés authentic btw)

I tried both spun sugar and bc this morning. BC wins hands down. The spun sugar is just too caramel in colour but the BC is perfect. Thanks so much K8.

you are very welcome--this was fun

happy pretty cakes to you, tres beaucoups of them  

i know i'm dangerous with a little french or any language for that matter

jolis gâteaux heureux de vous ♥

Just a little update; the cake was picked up and was a massive success, thank you, thank you, thank you for all your help 

Edited:

K8 just saw your response from the other day - Merci de tout mon coeur.

yay so cool!! thank you, claire, so sweet of you!! c'était beaucoup de plaisir ♥

(Dieu merci pour le traducteur google)  

I'll post a photo once I download it & yes Dieu merci pour google - I use it a lot bc my written French is terrible!

Here it is, thanks again everyone for your help.

AI think it came out very well. Great job!

awesome, claire! love your editing eye--great job

Thanks K8, AZ and to everyone else on here for your (collective) help.