1. For a lion, place an 8-in. double layer cake and a large cupcake on a half sheet board. Bevel the edges, placing the trimmings on top of the cake layers.
2. Ice the cake into a teardrop shape, and smooth the icing. A piece of a poly band works well for smoothing.
3. Using a large open tip or an open coupler, pipe the legs, feet, tail and ears.
4. To airbrush the body, apply a base coat of yellow first. Then, overlay a coat of orange, and finish with a light mist of brown, especially in the creases to add shadowing.
5. Using a No. 22 star tip, pipe elongated shells to form the end of the tail and the lion’s mane. Airbrush the mane and the end of the tail brown. Pipe white jowls and claws with open tip No. 12.
6. Then, use writing tip No. 4 to pipe the white eyes with black accents,and black nose, whiskers and mouth. Finally, add a red tongue, also with tip No. 4.