Marzipan fruits, flowers, and little critters can either be made in your kitchen or purchased on-line. If you make marzipan at home, I would strongly advise that you wear disposable food handler's gloves so as not to get your fingerprints on your product.

Before removing the marzipan from its packaging, gently knead the marzipan or roll it on your kitchen counter a few times to help soften it. Dust your work surface lightly with confectionary sugar. Open the package and only remove the amount of marzipan you actually need.

Cover the marzipan that is not being used with a lightly moist towel to keep it from drying out.

Squeeze some food coloring onto the marzipan you'll be working with. Knead it by hand, (wearing disposable gloves) to distribute the color. Roll it or mold it into shapes.

If you need to connect different pieces of marzipan together such as adding a stem to a cherry, use a toothpick to make a small depression at the point of connection. Lightly moisten the base of the piece you're attaching with the tip of a damp paper towel and gently bring the items together. The use of flat armed tweezers may help connect the pieces. You may also use a bit of egg white mixture as a glue.

Marzipan sculptures will be edible for a few days but they soon harden and will be much too tough to eat.

Store marzipan sculptures in a plastic bag in a cool place if you are not immediately placing them on a cake.

For additional information on sculpting marzipan, visit this site: JennieOTurkeyStore

Other cake decorating materials include pastillage, fondant, gumpaste, pulled sugar, and blown sugar.

Fondant is an icing made of sugar syrup and glucose, which is cooked to a specific temperature and then kneaded to a smooth, soft paste.

Pastillage is rolled Fondant without the addition of softening ingredients.

Gumpaste is a mixture of sugar, starch and gelatin. It’s what many of those realistic looking flowers, fruits and ribbons are made of on a wedding cake.

Since I am a culinary chef and not a pastry chef, I won't go iinto depth about these items unless someone has a specific question. Here is a link to a site with general information about pastillage, fondant, and gum paste.
Cake Fondant

Here is another link to a wonderful site about pulled and blown sugar. The artistry of the pulled sugar rose is breathtaking. Sugar Art