5 Easy Cake Toppers

Cake toppers add height, colour, and texture to cakes and in this tutorial I’ll show you 5 easy ideas to try.

If you prefer to watch a video of this tutorial, scroll to the bottom of the page.

#1 Chocolate Numbers

These are perfect for birthdays. Print or draw a number and then tape a piece of parchment paper over the top, onto a cake board or a plate.

Melt chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time so you don’t overheat it and cause it to seize and spoon it into a ziplock bag. Cut a small piece off one of the bottom corners.

Squeeze the chocolate through that hole to trace the number, starting with the outline and then filling it in. You can use a toothpick or the end of a spoon to flatten ad smooth the chocolate if you want to.

Cut a paper straw so that it’s about an inch longer than the height of the cake and press it into the chocolate number before it sets.

Squeeze a bit more chocolate over the top of the straw and then place the number in a bowl or and a tray and pour sprinkles over it. The tray or bowl will catch any bouncing sprinkles. Press the sprinkles gently into the melted chocolate to attach them and leave the chocolate to set.

It will take about an hour for the chocolate to set in a warm room or you can speed up the process in the fridge or freezer for 5-10 minutes. Pick the cake board up, letting the extra sprinkles fall into the bowl or tray, and peel the chocolate off the parchment paper.

Push the straw into a cake and voila!

#2 Candy Squiggles

For shiny and delicious cake toppers, melt hard candy or boiled sweets in the microwave for 1 minute, until they’re liquid and bubbling.

Wait about a minute for the sugar to stop bubbling and then drizzle the melted candy over a piece of parchment paper. If you use the melted candy immediately, it will spread out and pool when you pour it.

By waiting a minute, the drizzles will be thinner and you’ll have more control over the design.

Piping is as easy way to attach these to a cake, so while the sugar cools use a piping bag of buttercream and your favourite piping tip to pipe a design onto the top of the cake.

Peel the candy decorations off the parchment paper when they set and push them while the piping is still soft and sticky. When the buttercream sets, it will secure the toppers in place.

No one will guess how incredibly easy these toppers were to make!!

#3 Sprinkled Chocolates

Make dramatic, colourful toppers by pouring melted chocolate onto parchment paper or a silicone mat and spreading it around with an offset spatula to make a smooth, thin layer.

Score lines in the chocolate now, while it’s melted, so it will be easier to cut later. Scatter some sprinkles on now and they’ll stick because the chocolate hasn’t set yet.

Leave the chocolate for about 30 minutes to harden, or put it in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes, and then use a sharp knife to cut along the lines you scored earlier.

If the frosting on the cake has set and it’s too firm to be able to push the chocolates in, use a sharp knife to cut lines wherever you want to place a chocolate.

Press the chocolates into the top of the cake to add some height and colour!

#4 Meringue Pops

For meringue pops you’ll use the piping bags and tips you already use for frosting cakes and all you need are egg whites and sugar.

Whisk them together until stiff peaks form and I teach this in detail in my online course on 50 Easy Cake Decorating techniques, along with 49 other techniques!

Tint bowls of the meringue mixture and spoon it into piping bags. Pipe whatever shapes you like over paper straws on parchment paper or a silicone mat. You can add sprinkles if you like for some bling.

Bake them at 200F or 90C for 90 minutes. By cooking them at a low temperature you’ll prevent the meringue discolouring. After 90 minutes, touch a meringue pop and if it’s no longer sticky it’s ready but don’t take them out of the oven yet!

Turn the oven off but leave the meringue pops in the oven for another 2 hours and by letting them cool this gradually, you’ll prevent them from cracking.

Lift the meringue pops up and push them into your cake, pushing the front ones in lower than the back ones so that they’re all visible.

#5 Metallic Chocolates

For metallic toppers, use a tiny amount of gold or silver luster dust or edible glitter in a ziploc bag and add chocolate malt balls or any other round chocolates.

Seal the bag and shake the balls around gently to coat them in the powder. You only need about an 1/8th of a teaspoon of luster dust for this. Place the metallic balls on top of a cake for glamorous, metallic toppers!

If you’ve found this tutorial useful, for more ideas for cake toppers, borders, writing on cakes, frosting techniques, and decorative techniques, check out my online course on 50 Easy Cake Decorating Techniques.

Join my Club for access to ALL of my online classes as well as live online classes and Q&A sessions for members only!

Here’s the video version of this tutorial: