Extraordinary Cake Toppers – Make Your Own!

admin — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:00:00 +0000

Whether beginner or pro, if you love cake decorating then you’ve got what it takes to create your own cake topper!

You may find that besides having a knack for piping or smoothing buttercream, you’re great at modeling with gum paste or marzipan. Or maybe this may seem difficult, but you find you can wield a mean hot glue gun.

If you enjoy the design element of cake decorating more than the intricacies of sugarcraft, then you’ll probably adore arranging purchased items or flowers or fruit into beautiful cake topper designs.

Your cake toppers will likely crown cakes that are part of very special celebrations. Cake toppers are most often reserved for weddings, followed by anniversaries and milestone birthdays.

And if you’re in business for yourself, you will find that with uniqueness being such a treasured commodity these days, the ability to create custom made cake toppers will keep your order book full.

No matter how creative you get, just remember that the perfect cake topper will not only harmonize with the cake’s design, it will also reflect the guest of honor’s personality and sense of style.

Much of the enjoyment of crafting a cake topper for that special cake is found in the imagination and creativity you can exercise. However, if you’re like me, you may like to check out others’ ideas for inspiration. Here are a few to get you started:

Start with an ornament setting you purchase. This could be something like a gazebo or chapel window. Then add figurines and other decorations. Add special touches like tiny lights tucked behind the stained glass window to reflect onto the figurines.

If you ever enjoyed modeling with clay or the kids’ Play-Do, try your hand with Polymar clay figurines. To seen an example of how simple, yet sweetly these can be crafted, check out Rebecca’s “Round Heads”

You can also model with marzipan or gum paste, everything from brides and grooms to flowers and shells. The advantage of the Polymar clay, is that the figures will last forever, making nice keepsakes.

Create a cake topper with craft store items. A foam birdbath covered with pearl beads, and accented with greenery and flowers makes a beautiful setting for two winged creatures. With craftiness like this, doves on a wedding cake are elevated from pasé to chic elegance.

One cake decorator used a gum paste mold and some ingenuity to create a chocolate carousel that actually moved, thanks to a rotating doll stand!

Top a baby shower or young child’s birthday cake with stacked petit fours decorated to look like baby blocks.

Use cake sculpting skills to create a cake topper with cake. For example, a stacked, whimsical wedding cake could have each tier, except the top, iced to resemble the walls of a castle. Stairs, flowers, and such could be added. Then for the cake topper, using royal icing as glue, position the turrets you make (see Castle Cake article) on the top layer. Add a couple bluebirds of happiness or other whimsical, romantic symbol to the cake topper, and voila, there you have it – a cake topper symbolizing the bride and groom’s “happily ever after.”

Use gum paste molds to create gorgeous flowers. You could create an entire bouquet of lilies, or a tropical bouquet with antheriums and bird of paradise. Gum paste molds come in numerous shapes and sizes.

Tips for Positioning your Cake Topper

Larger ornaments are set on wide bases, so they don’t sink into the cake.
Small ones can often be glued on with royal icing or held in place with flower spikes.
As with the stacking of a multi-tiered cake, the cake topper should be placed on the cake at the site.
Whether the cake beneath it is tiered with separators or stacked Victorian style, the layer holding the cake topper should be made ready first. If the cake topper is heavy, use dowels as you would when stacking wedding cake layers. If it’s light, a plate or ornament base will do.

Many of the tips in this article are straight out of our “Cake Decorating Made Easy!” Video Books. Here’s what one reader wrote in to say:

“Well worth the investment. A fabulous gathering of tips, techniques, and recipes that only experience can offer.”

Irene Moser, Murrells Inlet, SC

To pick up some more ideas of the many wonderful confectionary creations you can make, check out our articles on Decorated Cakes.

Here are a few more tips to help you make your own cake toppers. You can find more ideas and better yet, inspiration for your own ideas by searching “Google Images.”

You don’t have to search specifically for “hand made” cake toppers to find many that are hand made. You’ll get the best results searching by types, such as humorous cake topper, beach cake topper, and so forth.

When it’s time to buy supplies, try craft stores like Michaels, and for those elusive items (or to save shopping time) shop online. CandylandCrafts at www.CandlylandCrafts.com has just about every cake decorating item, including a large catalog of molds.

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Samantha Mitchell, Co-Author
Cake Decorating Made Easy! Vol. 1 & 2
The World’s First Cake Decorating Video Books

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Extraordinary Cake Toppers – Make Your Own!