Pirate Treasure Chest

This is the second time I have made this cake.  This is made from two 11x15 inch sheet cakes, and is covered in chocolate marshmallow fondant and decorated in marshmallow fondant and gold foil covered coins.  I included detailed written instructions on the previous blog entry, found here:
http://cakesbykristenh.blogspot.com/2011/01/pirate-treasure-chest-cake.html.   Click below to read more and see additional photographs:
Let me express my disdain for working with chocolate fondant!!  Thank heavens for the gold trim to hide all (well, most of) the cracks and imperfections.  Chocolate fondant is very brittle and dries out quickly.  It must be made right before using it, which, to me, really stretches out the time spent decorating, as I typically prepare all my icings and fondant a day or so in advance so they are ready to go on decorating day.  (my rule of thumb:  prepare icings and fondant on day 1, bake on day 2, decorate on day 3 and deliver on day 4... this greatly reduces the number of sleepless nights spent making a cake... and I know all you fellow bakers know what I mean!!).  The chocolate fondant  recipe I use is tasty, and it all came together in the end, but I still dread the next time I have to use the stuff!

I did a couple of things differently this time.  The color of the trim is more gold than brass, as on the last treasure chest cake I made.  I couldn't find the plastic pirate coins I used last time, so I purchased a big bag of foil covered chocolate coins.  I couldn't hot glue these together, since that would melt them, so I used melted fondant to "glue" them together instead (the gold color of the trim worked great since it was so close to the color of the foil on the coins).  I put a thin layer of corn syrup on the base, then sprinkled the graham cracker crumb sand on it so it would stay in place.  I did everything else the same way as in the instructions on the other blog entry.  Here are a couple of photos I took while making this cake that may help clear up some of the steps.

The chocolate layer, wrapped up after cooling (11"x15" sheet cake)

The strawberry layer for the bottom, placed on the base
after being cut and stacked into an 11"x7.5" size.

The back of the cake.. please note that there was a small gap
between the top and bottom of the chest at the back and
I had to fill it will a roll of gold fondant.  I also pressed a
little too hard when carving the lines for the "planks" on
the treasure chest.... this shows on the left of  the top layer.
So, be extra gentle when doing this, if you attempt it :)