Twenty to Make: Sugar Birds

I am just delving into the art of fondant modeling and was looking for a book with explicit directions on how to create cute animals to put on my topsy turvey tiers. I think this book will meet my needs well. It definately goes step by step (better than another book I purchased). There are some animals I won't use (e.g. skunk), which is the reason for the four stars, but I think that several of these will come in handy! The giraffe, leopard, tiger, kaola, lion, and zebra are my favorites, and they are done in such a way to make them really adorable. I am one of those people who can duplicate artsy stuff if I can see how someone else did it, but I can't come up with it on my own. That being said, I anticipate this book really being a lot of help for me personally. If you can visualize this type of thing on your own or an advanced fondant modeler, you might find this book somewhat elementary.

The book was much smaller than I anticipated and there are no real detailed instructions on how to make the dogs.

OK So I am a novice at "sugar art" (well baking of any kind actually) so when my 4 year old daughter decided she wanted a bunny cake for her 4th birhtday complete with 3D sugar bunny on top I didn't know where to start. I purchased this book, and while it didn't have a bunny in it it had great step by step illustations of how to make a variety of cute looking sugar animals. It even told me what type of sugar to use (moulding paste not fondant - yes there is a difference!!) I ended up having a ball making a bunny ('zactly like the one in the picture mummy!)for my daughter's cake and now have a book to keep for the next time she wants something fancy!

The book breaks down the "how to" instructions pretty well, so I'll say that it's ok. I think this could be useful in making sugar animals, but I will probably use inspiration from other sources for the final appearance of the animals and will not use some of the animals used in this book at all.I think all of the animals could definitely be cuter. I also think the giraffe and zebra were especially disappointing as they just had lollipop stick legs stuck into fondant bodies with fondant bases under their feet, and they just don't look good at all. I wouldn't put either of them on a cake.

I actually tried making these with my children's playdoh first, because I have never tried this before and didn't want to waste the sugar. Turns out that the pictures in the book were really easy to follow and my kids and I had a ball making animals. I think it is a good book for beginners, and a fun craft, even if they never make it onto a cake! Fun colorful photos are sized large enough to actually be useful.

For those who have always wanted to learn how to make the cutest little sugar critters, this book is definately for YOU! I have always been intimidated with trying to make these and thanks to this book, I am living happily ever after, finally able to make these for my cake projects! Any beginner can do these and even those who are advanced in making little sugar critters will find pages of cute animals to make. Have fun with this one!

While I generally really like the "Twenty to Make" series, I will be honest and say that this book was so juvenile in it's design features that I would NEVER use this as a professional. The bears on the front are probably the BEST and most detailed in the book. If you are new to sculpting it would be okay, but you can do better. In my opinion, you'd do better to get FREE tutorials online than to pay for this book.

I love the "Twently to Make" series. This is a great little book that has lots of examples and is very easy to follow. I have had a few "Twenty to Make" books that I did not like as much, but this was definitely NOT one of them. You can use this book for sugar paste, polymer clay, cold porcelain, salt dough, etc... I would highly recommend it.

I bought this book just to add to my library of 'how to' books for cakes and cake decorating. I was really impressed with it. Although "Twenty to Make" is a little bit of a stretch - yes, there ARE 20 different fairies to make, BUT - I'd say that several of these could just be described as optional variations to the main few designs.I like the way the author makes use of different sugarcraft cutters to fashion accessories and clothing for the fairies. I do feel that it should be described as 20 different ways to dress up one basic fairy model. That said, it's a useful little book at a good price with plenty of tips and ideas.

I have recently started to make cakes to sell so I have been buying books with 'different' things. I ordered this one on Sugar Fairies as they would look nice on a little girl's cake. The book is well illustrated and the descriptions are very good. Instructions are straight-forward enough to follow and you could probably adapt any of the fairies for any occasion. I did find, however, that as I went through the book they all became a bit 'samey'. Obviously there are only so many sugar fairies you can make, and to be honest, some of them looked like miniature cakes, instead of cake decorations.Overall, good value for money and doesn't take up much space in the cupboard!!!

I bought this book for my work as a confectioner. We keep it as one of our library to use as a guideline for a good variety of animals.Great book, lots of pictures so you know exactly what you're meant to do. I would recommend this for anyone who is looking to make animals for a cake or party. You don't need to have any experience for the majority of these. Great practice for those who want to improve their skills with sugarcraft.

I have several of these types of books for various crafts and skills and I am thrilled with the purchase of this one too!Beautiful images, easy to follow instructions that are fool proof. Love it!

This was a nice, simple and easy to follow guideline for making small icing animals. Anyone could make them after following the instructions - plenty of pictures showing exactly how to do them - nice and simple. I didn't make any of the animals in the book - but I did get plenty of helpful hints when making the Gruffalo animals for my granddaughters cake, and the instructions can be used for any animal - not just those in the book.