A Flamingo for the Flamenco

I've been a little MIA with the blog lately and not for lack of cakes, I've actually been vacationing in Hawai'i with my husband and his side of the family and haven't had a minute to post some pictures until now. It was so beautiful and warm...its hard to come back to reality (and cold Utah).
So the following cake is for a friend I work (or worked) with at Riverwoods Urgent Care (my full time job right now). We call her "Pink Bird on a Stick" because her last name is Flamenco (and now the cake will make more sense).  And instead of posting just the finished product I thought you all might like to see what this crazy cake making process is like. So the following is a series of the process, be prepared as there are a lot of pictures. Hope you enjoy!

Construction of the support for the cake, (thanks honey).

The head is made of styrofoam and covered in royal icing (trying to keep it as light as possible)

Don't you love her fake eyelashes!

Of course the cake requested was the Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting (horrible to try and carve but it worked out in the end).

Making the feathers.

Isn't that a cute tooshi.

Transporting this bird was horrible. I sat in back holding her neck and body from cracking and falling while my husband drove me to work.... would definitely need to re-think the design if I ever do a cake like this again.