Loving Carrots Homemade Cake Topper

A picture floating around on facebook from Grist caught my eye, and after I was asked to make a cake for my sister-in-law and her new fiance I couldn't get the picture out of my mind.  The couple are both "earthy" and I thought they would enjoy the concept.  How could I make a safe version of this on a cake? 

Photo of loving carrots from grist.com

I am not interested in using chemical-laden food coloring and gum paste.  I used to make marshmallow fondant cakes which was fun to use but my "healthy" conscience won't let me make make them anymore.  Marshmallows are loaded with high fructose corn syrup, preservatives and artificial flavour and coloring.   I don't believe that the articificial coloring is safe to eat, and I don't even want to get into what is in gum paste.  So I decided to make a non-edible cake topper.  Play dough.  I found a simple recipe on line and worked food coloring into the play dough.  Then I baked the play dough at 200F for several hours to harden it. I cut out parchment paper the shape of the carrots and put it under the carrots on the cake. I bought some carrots with greens, and attached several greens to the carrots with pins.  The cake is a natural carrot cake with organic flour, organic cane sugar, and coconut oil.  Click here for the recipe. Note that I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. 

The icing is a cream cheese icing.  You can make organic icing sugar by blending white organic cane sugar until it is powdery.  Just use it up right away or it will harden and be unusable.  Most icing sugars have corn starch in them to keep them soft. 

I finished the cake by putting names on in chocolate icing, and surrounded the cake with mint leaves. 

The cake was a unique hit and fun to make!  Feel free to share your safe and natural cake ideas.  I am always looking for more inspiration!

This article has been shared with Frugal Days Sustainable Ways #20.