Sorcerer Mickey Cake

My least favorite decoration for the 'Under the Sea' cake was the snorkeling koala. He gave me a ton of trouble and I felt like I did the best I could, but really I knew I could do better with more experience. That inspired me to practice my sculpting again, and this time giving myself the challenge of a recognizable cartoon character. Sorcerer Mickey was and still is one of my favorite cartoon characters, and the level of difficulty seemed appropriate so I felt like he was a good choice.
Mickey is 100% edible and made of gum paste and fondant. I learned quite a few things while making him, a lot was really trial and error. For my first try, I sculpted the body and tried to drape the robe over him. That was clearly not working so I scrapped that and made each body part out of a solid piece of gum paste/fondant mix. After that I was having some trouble keeping his parts together. I first tried spaghetti, but things kept on slipping out. I then tried royal icing, and then egg whites, neither of which created a strong enough bond. Fortunately, after some help from Cake Central member KathysCC, I was able to stick him together using a lightly moistened fresh piece of gum paste between each joint. It worked perfectly!
The face was another big challenge, and while he could use some improvement, I am still pretty happy with his likeness. The robe, hat, and details were carefully painted using a mix of vodka and food dye. I didn't do the best job painting the hat as my first coat was a little too thick...oops.

Once I had Mickey completed I needed a cake for him, so I decided to do something small and simple. I used a cookie cutter for the stars, and painted and attached them to floral wire. I used a cobblestone imprint for the base which I then painted in the cracks. The waves were made of white fondant/gum paste and colored using blue food spary. I added a shine to the waves using a mixture of corn syrup and vodka (sounds tasty :/ ), but that effect wasn't really picked up by the photos. Maybe a higher ratio of corn syrup next time. The smaller waves at the bottom were made of butter cream and then dusted with blue petal dust.
I will probably save Mickey for a later cake as these figures can last a long time when stored properly and it would be fun to do a really epic Disney cake. Overall is was a great learning experience!