Modeling Clay vs. Sugarpaste vs. Marzipan

Today's project is figure modeling!!! I have a couple cakes coming up that will have miniature sculpted figures and assorted small objects hand sculpted out of sugar, so today is a practice run.

What I'm trying to decide before I begin is which medium to use. I've done a little sculpting before (snowman on gingerbread house) and for that I used marzipan...however, many people recommended using modeling clay. That is candy melts melted down and mixed with corn syrup to form a sort of "chocolate" clay, which then dries and can be painted (white chocolate). It's not difficult to make but I've never really worked with it.

Sugarpaste is simple and pliable and I like making it because you get to stick your hands into a huge bowl of 10x sugar (that's powdered sugar) and squish it up with warm corn syrup and gelatin...I don't know about you but I like having sugar up to my elbows!
Marzipan tends to be not as pliable, but it definately beats the others in taste...It's drier and doesn't take to paint as well, so coloring the pieces in advance by kneading in color paste is the best idea...

The other project for today will be mixing gumpaste! Gumpaste is sugarpaste with things added to make it dry quicker and harder. I will use this to make the wheels and trucks for the skateboard cake...

Check out these cakes that I posted...the flowers snowman and "ribbon roses" are all handmade. The snowman is marzipan, the flowers and roses are sugarpaste (fondant).