Monkey cake

My little girl was 5 today! Can't believe she's so old, I don't know where the last 5 years have gone!

She wanted a monkey hunting party so we had great fun at her party making binoculars from toilet rolls, hunting for monkeys (pictures of them only but that didn't seem to disappoint the children too much), finding sticks for a fire and toasting marshmallows.

Off course she had to have a monkey cake and as I was short of time at the end of the week (had 2 jewellery sales) decided to make a polymer clay monkey to go on top of a fairly plain cake (any excuse to play with clay!)

Here's the cake at the party

We sang Happy Birthday again to Daisy at home with what was left of the cake!

I was really pleased with how my monkey turned out, until I baked him. He's solid Kato clay and as I turned the oven on I realised I would of been better giving him a tin foil core or something similar as the clay was very thick! Needless to say he cracked. I was distraught until I stepped back and realised it didn't really show. I still think the cracking is often to do with lack of support but also wonder if it's to do with how on a thicker bit of clay the outside is cured whilst the inside is uncured still. Does the clay expand as it heats up or cures? Is the raw clay underneath cured clay too unstable to support it? Some more experimenting required I think as  I would really like to be able to be confident things won't crack!

Anyway hats of to those of you who sculpt with polymer clay - how on earth do you do it without squashing and disfiguring other bits all the time I don't know!