DIY Age Cake Topper

Hello! My feet are KILLING me cause I've been in the kitchen aaaaaaaaalllll day. A batch of cupcakes (2 flavors), and two cakes! Woo! Got a lot done, fixed some mishaps and am ready to show how I made my Cake topper from last posts cake, and one of my new cakes.
So here's the finished product on the cake:

So cute huh?! Perfect way to bedazzle a cake! This cake is Adam's great grandmother's, Lily's great great grandmother's! She was a St Patrick's Day baby and named Patricia in honor. She wants strictly St. Patrick's Day theme every birthday. Can't wait to present it tomorrow! Although it's kinda of funny.. I'm so proud of my work till it comes time for the "client" to get the cake. I get so nervous! I feel like a dog with my tail between my legs or something. Weird. OK!

Materials: 

I also used a hot glue gun! Oops! 

I find using my finger to spread the glue gets it totally all over so there are no empty spots. Then the best part:  Glitter!

Now, I do like three or so glitter sessions so that I get every part of the wooden number. 

Once the front and top dries, I move on to the back and bottom. Then last the middle. After this, I modpodged EVERY spot on the number. Be very sure to absolutely cover it. As much fun as glitter is, you truly don't want to eat it or have it rain on your cake. Then lastly, I hot glued it to my skewer, wooden pole thing. I bought a set of them at Michaels. The numbers took me FOREVER to find, and I traveled long and far to find them at the perfect size for cakes at AC Moore. I trimmed the skewer by holding it next to the finished cake and just snapped them. I filed the ends with a clean, new nail file to make sure there are no little splinters in my cake. 

You can do this with glitter, scrap book paper or anything your heart desires. If you check out my last blog, you'll notice I did a polka dot pattern on my 18 topper. I feel like it gives it more of a birthday feel where I don't usually actually write out happy birthday on my cakes anymore. Here are the rest of the pictures!

I am so proud of my guy's little beer! I hollowed out a pen and sawed it into a small round. Stuffed it with fondant, put a bit of frosting on top and added sugar pearls for bubbles! How awesome! The pot of gold is of course dusted with gold pearl dust. My leprechaun is full of tooth picks and built around a fat boba straw (which I also use for stacking my cakes). I used chocolate gold coins on the outside, too, and pasted those with frosting because they were so heavy! I think she's going to love it! Here's the other cake I made today: 

Things I learned this time around:

Don't even open the fondant till you're going to use it. (I tried to dye it ahead of time to save time.. nope. Don't do it, just wait and you'll get the desired consistency)

If you're coloring with food coloring (like the leprechaun's face or the star's faces) don't do it till it's already on the cake. 

Put moisturizing soap next to your sink. I washed my hands about 6,000 times today and are so dry from plain soap. Ouch! 

If you're building a sculpture that you want to stand, or sit on the cake, build around something that will hold it up. I learned this actually from the Harry Potter cake. "Impaling" your fondant will make it smush and bend a way that ruins your shape or creature.

Have a good playlist on hand. Tay Swift has stuck with me strong in all of my baking! 

So I hope you use this tutorial or enjoyed reading it anyway! Lily had a great day with her grandma. I had warned my mom much in advance that I'd needed her allllll day and I did. I was in the kitchen 10-6! I really hope everyone loves them because I know I'm going to wake up nervous as ever tomorrow morning. My next post will probably be of Lily's first party she's throwing. She's having four baby friends over for a one year old egg hunt! Should be lots of fun :)

Night!

Becca