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DIY – Wedding Cake Topper : If you are looking for something different to decorate your wedding cake and are feeling crafty, here is how I made my own llama wedding cake topper using polymer clay for my wedding cake. I hope this sparks the creativity in you. Have you ever heard of polymer clay? I have heard of clay, but never really knew the differences, nor did I know the endless possibilities you can make with it. This doesn’t make the hubby too happy but he’s seen the finished products of a few things so he’s sorta onboard. 🙂 I LOVE this stuff, but never really thought about using it until I explored all the different ideas you can make with it. If you bake cakes, it has the similar consistency of fondant. It’s soft and pliable, however, it does not dry out like fondant. With this particular clay, it is oven baked when you are satisfied with your item and this seals it to where it is hard and can be kept forever. RELATED: Wooden Wedding Guestbook to hang on your wall. When looking for cake toppers, I wanted something a little different. Heck, my whole wedding was a little different, but I loved every moment of it. I like the ones that you can personalize with your name, or the letter of your last name, but I really didn’t want to pay the price to personalize it (its the craftiness in me). So I started looking at different ideas on Etsy and Pinterest and found a lady on Etsy that makes the cutest cake toppers. She truly sold me with the llamas because if you REALLY know me, you know I LOVE llamas. I read the materials she used and began researching. I noticed it seemed pretty similar consistency to fondant, just not edible. I have made characters with fondant before, so I was determined to try my hand with this polymer clay. Personally, I love winging it with things. Some of my greatest creations come from winging it. I think it came so cute! I tried to take as many pictures as I can throughout to make it a tutorial. So let’s get started. The average cake topper I saw with polymer clay was around 4-5 inches width and height. As I’ve researched this, I’ve learned that you really don’t want them to be any bigger than that. They become too big and heavy, but more importantly you don’t want to take away from the cake. Polymer clay $6.49
DIY Wedding Cake Topper
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What you’ll need:
Tool set [ The tool set for polymer clay is pretty much the same as the one for fondant, so I used the set I bought for baking and make sure to wash each tool after] This set has been discontinued but you can find other sets through Amazon.
Circle Cookie Cutter $26.47
I love this set for the simple fact that it’s all the holidays and birthday theme ideas you need to make cookies for any occassion. This one includes alphabets, numbers and different sizes of the most popular ones, i.e. circles, hearts, etc. For less than $30 bucks for over 1oo cutters. I’ll take it.
Fondant Rolling pin $5.99
This is probably one of my favorite tools. I love small things, and this is just perfect for all the little creations I make. You can use it for so many things. The bands are used to keep your fondant, clay, cookie dough all the same thickness. Make it as thin or as thick as you need. (I know this goes without saying, but wash the pin in between uses.)
Baking Pan $15.99
I love having a variety of baking sheet pans. They don’t take up alot of room but I use them for all sorts of things. I usually cover them in foil for easy clean up.
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Steps:
1. Start by making the legs. You’ll want to make 4 rolls about 1-1.5 in length. Push bottom of the roll up so it turns more into a hoof/foot.
2. For the body, you’ll want a roll about 2-2.5 in long and about 1.5 thick. Mold it into the shape you prefer. I like to make it the smallest around where the neck will be and have the middle the biggest and then taper the back where the behind will be.
3. Makes holes into the tops of the legs and the bottom of the body but be sure not to poke all the way through the other side with a toothpick. (You may have to make the toothpick smaller,) Then push toothpick into body and then push legs onto the body/toothpick. Smooth edges to blend together. (Unlike fondant, these should easily blend together so there are no crease marks between the two. Make sure legs are spread out to make sure the structure is sturdy. This is crucial for adding the neck and head. You don’t want him to become top heavy. Learn from my mistake!)
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4. Start creating a neck by making the roll about the same length as the body, but the same thickness as the legs. You don’t want to make it too long or too thick as he can be top heavy. Push toothpick through 3/4 the neck and then 1/4 of the front of the body and blend. (If the neck is falling, try pushing more toothpick into the body. If that does not work, make neck smaller or thinner. )
5. To create the head, roll a some clay into a ball about the size of a quarter. Then, roll finger just on one side of the ball to make the front of the face smaller. (I slightly flattened the bottom of the head to have it sit better on top the neck. Add small piece of toothpick and smooth/blend it together.
6. For the ears, I made a small rounded triangle for the tail and blended the edges to the back. The ears I also make rounded triangles and made an indent in the middle of the triangle to give the ear depth.
7. To add texture, I used Wilton’s fondant decorating kit tools. I used the side/point to make lines and texture. I left half the leg smooth and part of his face and ears smooth.
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8. The face, I used the Wilton modeling tools. The one with a circle on the end, I used to make eye sockets. I added small ball of black and then a tiny flattened ball of white. To construct the nose, I am back to my trusty rounded triangle, except smaller and much thinner than the tail. Use water or liquid polymer to adhere it to the face. Use a toothpick or a wilton tool to make the mouth.
9. Accessories: (As you work on these, make sure before you finish them and adhere the pieces together that you are checking to make sure they fit your llamas. – It’s easier to check as you go then to finish it and adhere it together only to find its too big or too small).
- Bowtie: 2 small rounded triangles and a small flat ball OR you can make a small rectangle and pinch the middle and add a small ball on top. Use liquid polymer to adhere it together.
- Hat: Similar to the face, make a small ball and then flatten each edge. Have one side of the hat smaller than the other so that it looks like a hat. Make small flat circle about the same width as the top of the hat. Adhere with liquid polymer.
- Flowers: These are a bit tricky but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy. Basically you are rolling out small rounded leaf shapes, that will gradually get bigger. However, the first ones are extremely tiny, and the biggest ones are not that big. Your first one shouldn’t be more than 1/4 in length. Roll it tightly together to make the bud of the flower. As you make more you are slowly wrapping them around the bud, overlapping them as you go. (One “leaves” shouldn’t wrap the whole bud. ) As you wrap, gradually flare the tops of them back from the bud to give it a rose feel/look. When it is to your desired size, adhere to the llama via liquid polymer. Then make small green leaf and attach to either size of the bottom of the rose ( I just put it close the bottom of the rose but on the llama’s head. )
10. I made a base with the teal color to give a little color pop between the cake and the girl llama. It measured out to be 5 inches. I used one of my smaller mixing bowls to make the circle, since I have no cookie cutters that size. I made sure both llamas fit correctly on the circle before adhering them with liquid polymer.
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11. I drew the heart myself with an exacto knife and wrote our initials and wedding date with a wilton pointed tool. When using this tool, you first instinct is to write like you do with a pen. However, this will tear the clay and leave you with more clay on one side. Instead, angle the tool or toothpick slightly sideways so you are more indenting the clay as opposed to digging down into it. To keep the heart sitting up, I made “cypress knee” shape to rest the heart on to act as a base. Adhere the heart to the base.
Bake as your clay as your clay brand recommends. Check on your creation as it is baking. This is where I noticed my llama was too top heavy and the brown llama neck and head fell off. (Of course, HE would be the difficult one! 😛 ). I also noticed I didn’t push the toothpick in far enough into the body. It was too close to the edge of the body that it wasn’t stable enough for the baking process.
Allow to cool when finished and it will harden. And that’s it! It’s ready to be put on your cake.
I really loved how to it turned out and now we can keep it for many years to come.
What will you make for your cake?
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