How to make a topper for your cake. Create your own cake topper: tutorial

In this tutorial, I’ll teach you how to make a sugar paste cake topper. Making toppers is so much fun! 

In order to learn how to make a topper, we will focus on modelling a little girl so you can properly pick up the techniques. As you already know, once you’ve mastered the techniques, you’ll be able to develop your own style and create your own designs. Knowing how to make cake toppers has some advantages, since it allows you to offer personalized cakes. You can make toppers for wedding cakes, birthday cakes…

As you can see, I am back after holidays! Last August I’ve been preparing my new workshops in India and Singapore but I also had time to relax and have fun with my family and friends. Moreover, I’ve been preparing some new tutorials (I have not forgotten about you or my blog, of course :D).  

Cake toppers: essential materials

Before we start to make the topper, be sure to prepare all the materials. To make this topper  you will need:

INGREDIENTS FOR THE TOPPER

• 45gr Renshaw Modelling Paste for making the face
• 30gr Renshaw Modelling Paste for making the body
• 2gr Renshaw Modelling Paste for each arm
• 2gr Renshaw Modelling Paste for each leg.
• 25gr Renshaw Modelling Paste for the bib overalls
• 40gr Renshaw Modelling Paste for the hair
• ProGel Food Colouring: Sky Blue, Eucalyptus, Peach, Ruby, Chestnut
• Rainbow Dust Edible Glitter: Navy Blue, Strawberry
• CMC
• Edible glue
• Maizena cornflour

TOOLS TO ELABORATE THE FIGURE

• Small rolling pin
• Dresden tool
• Fondant ball tool (medium)
• Some brushes
• Scalpel
• 18 gauge wire
• Skewer
• Sewing tools

Cake topper tutorial

How to make the head of the topper

1. First, you have to color the modeling paste for the head, body, arms and legs. Use the Peach color with a bit of Chestnut.

2. Make a ball with modeling paste (I always use Renshaw Modeling Paste). Shape it into a teardrop. Put the paste between your hands. 

3. Make a slit in the middle of the paste with the rolling pin or with a brush handle. 

4. Make two holes in the middle of the slit, locating the eyes. Remember that the space between the eyes must equal the size of the eyeballs. 

5. Soften the eyeballs with your thumbs. You can also use a ball tool.

6. Pinch the space between the eyes with your fingers to shape the nose. After that, press the nose up to sharpen it. Do it softly and don’t forget to make the nose holes. 

7. Make a line under the nose with the Dresden tool to create a smile. Press on the ends of the smile to make the corners of the mouth.

8. For making the eyes, you have to put two small balls of white modeling paste on the eyeballs. Crush this white paste softly with a ball tool. Later, make two small blue paste balls and repeat the process, sticking them to the white paste with edible glue or water. 

9. Put a really small ball of black paste in the centre of the eye. Paint the edge of the iris with gel colouring dissolved in alcohol. Mark the outer circle to get a realistic effect. Mix some Strawberry food colouring with a pinch of Maicena cornflour and paint the cheeks softly.

How to make the body of the topper

10. For making the body of the topper, make a ball with the Renshaw Modeling Paste. Press and rotate at the same time to make the neck. On the opposite side, press slightly with two fingers to generate and angle, where we will put the legs.

11. For making the arms, you need to roll 2gr of modeling paste into a small, thin “snake” with your index fingers. With a small rolling pin, crush one of the edges in order to make the hand and cut a small triangle to separate the thumb from the rest of the hand. Make a small cut in the middle of the arm to create the elbow joint. 

12. To make the legs, make a ball with 1gr of modeling paste and smash it in order to get a leg shape. Make a bias cut on one of the edges so that you can enclose it in the body. Nail a skewer in the neck, making sure not to pierce the lower part of the body. Let all the pieces dry for 24 or 48 hours.

13. In order to make the T-shirt, stretch the gray modeling paste till it is really thin. Apply some edible glue to the body and paste the gray paste. Put it together at the back of the body. Make a cut on the upper part for a better finish. 

14. Enclose the legs and nail a wire in both of them in order to stick the topper in the porexpan. Make the bib overalls stretching 25gr of modeling paste coloured with Ruby and Chestnut. Cut it in order to get the correct shape and glue it to the gray shirt, applying the edible glue to the back of the bib overalls.   

Make some details: be creative

15. Cover the arms with some gray modeling paste to make the sleeves of the T-shirt.

16. Put a modeling paste wedge at the back of the head so that we can create a more voluminous hair. Then, put the hair lock by lock (don’t make the locks too big). You can use a Dresden tool to mark some lines and create more volume. 

17.Before sticking the topper to a cake or to a piece of porexpan, make the shoes colouring a bit of modeling paste with ProGel Navy Blue. Make sure the shoes are totally dry before sticking the topper to the cake. 

Decorating figures for cakes  

The last step consists in nailing the head to the body and modeling all the details you like. I suggest making a little hat with some white flowers and a pair of braces for the overalls. Let your imagination fly and create your own character! Now that you know how to make a cake topper, let me know how it goes. If you have some questions or doubts, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. 

See you in my next post!

Marc Suárez