Chanel Purse Cake

I've been wanting to make a cake purse for a really long time, so with my friend's 30th birthday right around the corner, I offered to make her one.  Since this was my very first purse cake, my friend found a purse design online and I basically tried to copy it.

I baked layers of cream cheese pound cake, leveled them off, and stacked them on top of each other.  To make the layers stick together, I carefully frosted between each layer with homemade buttercream.  Using a really sharp knife, I then carved the small mountain of cake into the shape of a purse.

All the surfaces of the cake also received a coating of buttercream to seal in the crumbs (I forgot to take a picture!).  After chilling in the fridge for a few hours to harden the coating, I colored and rolled out a large piece of soft pink fondant and covered the cake.

Then I gave each side of the cake diamond details:

Next came the black corner fabric, rolled piping over the two edges of the cake, the Chanel logo, and an extra piece of fabric on top with stitching details for the zipper.

Zipper detailing and the metal rings for the double straps came next; I had to figure out how to give the straps the knotted detail at each metal ring.

Top view of purse straps and zipper detail:

 To finish off the look, I rolled out white fondant and placed it on a cake board.  Such a large piece of fondant is quite difficult to work with , but the wavy effect of the cloth was worth it.  I wanted some different colors in there as well so I made a small bottle of nail polish, and since my friend said she normally uses lip gloss rather than lipstick, I also created a little jar of lip gloss.  And of course, what's Chanel without a string of pearls?

Top view: 

 Side back view:

Other side back view:

 Entire display with fondant lettering on board:

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY JOHANNA!!!