Playing with my food again-episode 4

You will need to refer back to Episode 3 where I made the fondant checkerboard.
Refrigerate the checkerboard cane for about 1 hour.

Links for the tools will connect you to my Hubby's shop if you are looking for these products.
Thank you so much for supporting myself and my family.
The other links will take you to Pila's Pantry, I do not get paid or any special compensation for doing this for Pila, other that good feeling in my heart for giving a mom and pop a plug (I do understand that mom and pop thing). They provided great service, have great prices and products, and I just like the atmosphere.

Cut off 6 slices about 1/8" thick from the checkerboard. Lay them together so they are 2 across and 3 up and down.

Press all the squares together and roll with the green roller M35001 from Makin's (remember it won't stick to the fondant, and the price? wooooooo whooooooooooo, comes with rolling cutters too) When you roll the fondant, roll up and down and then roll from the left to the right, switching each time you roll the fondant.

Or you can turn the cutting board and roll one way and then turn the board one quarter and roll again. This will spread the design evenly. This is rolled out pretty thin, about 1/16".
Trim away the excess so you have a rectangle. I just cut the edges so the whole thing had straight edges all the way around.
It was rectangle when I finished.

Now extrude some black fondant (from Pila's, my new favorite play place) with the stainless steel extruder.
I used the 4 round hole disk, it comes with the extruder.
You have to keep these cords pliable and flexible, separate them from each other and then cover with a dish towel or plastic sheeting, because putting those legs and antenna on the ants is a slow process.
I tried to put the legs on one at a time, one side at a time, and that sucked big time. So I started cutting longer lengths, about a 1", and then laying the ant body over the top of the 3 legs (really 6 individual legs).

The bodies are made from 3- 1/4" balls of black fondant (You get at Pila's, black is hard to make yourself. Just to get a good dark grey will take some time and work, also known as kneading and kneading. It does not taste like Licorice, LOL)
The abdomen ball you roll in to a little football shape. Roll in to a ball first and then roll the ball back and forth a little on the work surface with your finger.
A tiny bit of water between each segment will stick them together too! Remember that water will break down fondant, do not use too much water.

You can see my first ant at the top by the blue towel and then the next two are much better and I did not hurt my friend Jodi either.
Making the first one I wanted to scream or hurt somebody and Jodi was the closest person.
Her Hubby is pretty smart, he seems to disappear at times and when you look back you realize it was a really good time to leave, LOL!!

At 5 pm this day he got up and said very gently, "isn't it time to eat?"
At dinner and Mojitos(mummies). I finished mine and he said "she'll have another of those." Haw haw haw, gotta love a smart man.

Oh, and I used a bit of water to hold the legs to the bodies.
Just put the legs down and connect them all in the center and fan out the ends of the legs and then add tiny bit of water in the center and place the body there.

I wanted the legs to arch up and then bend down, duh, like ants, so I placed tooth picks under the legs and let them dry that way.
Doesn't the first ant look like an ant wreck?

They are multiplying just like real ants, must be all the sugar.
Dab a tiny bit of water on the top of the head. Pick up a 1/2" section of extruded coil and place on the top of the head.
Press down in the middle of the coil with the pointy tool end that comes in the modeling tool set M35002. These do not stick to fondant either and they have 6 ends for modeling on three tools and the price is way good!!

Frost that cake.
Extrude a half circle of red and then one of black.
That disk comes in another disk set M35156
(At the bottom of this page on my hubby's store are all kinds of combinations for discounts on multiple buying of disks and tools.)
Place the red one around the bottom of the cake and the black one around the top of the cake.

Cut both ends with a clay slicing blade or razor blade.

Add the tablecloth you made from the checkerboard fondant cane.

Add some of the ants to the top of the cake. Stick right in the frosting. The black seam at the top border didn't seem as prominent so we left it alone. I though, we don't want it to fall off and look like it was poisoned by the cake! Or maybe we do. LOL!! Tired, long day, too much sugar, no food, fading fast.
For the one covering the seam on the red border on the bottom, we used a little frosting to attach it to the border.

To make the basket: Roll a 1" ball of the chocolate fondant (Pila's, yes this tastes like Tootsie rolls, mmmmm mummies) in to a little log, I then shaped it to the best of my ability in to a basket bottom.

I marked the outside in a basket-like pattern with the knife-like green tool in the 3 tool set.

I added a small piece of the excess left over from the trimmings of the checkerboard table cloth, to the basket bottom.

I then rolled a little log about the length of the basket and maybe a 1/2" in diameter and flattened it with the roller or you could flatten with your fingers.

I then cut it in half. I placed one side on one half of the basket bottom over the table cloth. I placed the other half on the other side. If you rolled the log to long or flattened it too much you can trim these halves to fit.

I rolled a little log about 1/4" in diameter or the chocolate fondant and cut the handle to fit and attached it to the sides of the basket.

Look out it is the attack of the giant ants!! Maaaaahwahhhhhhhhhh!! 

I have the ant attack going on at my house lately. I don't mind ants at all as long as they stay outside.

Hubby and I have this discussion every year at this time.

Him "they are just looking for water". 

Me "I just watered, they can look outside".

They are pretty cute on a cake though.

Oh, wouldn't it be fun to place them on the plate too, in a line crawling to the cake?

Up the cake pedestal, LOL!!

On the table??

Naw! The ants were the hardest part of this whole thing and then they were not hard, they just took some patience, and someone stole mine.

I haven't been able to find it in a long time. ;-P

I still think clay is easier, but I am having fun getting to know this new (to me) clay-like medium.

Food Clay!!!