Airplane Cake Topper {Tutorial}

Remember this cake?  I made it a few weeks ago for a special 1 year old birthday.  It was such a fun cake to make.  I love making cake toppers, I think it really brings more height and interest to any cake.  I used to design my cake toppers from paper templates but now that I have my 3D printer, I can create cutters to simply create any design I like.  I actually used a paper template to create this topper, but I still wanted to design the cutters so I could easily replicate this in the future.  First you will need my airplane cutter set which can be purchased here.

I just realized how cute this would be for cookie favors or even a cookie cake topper!  Okay, let’s focus on the fondant/gum paste cake topper for now.  Here’s how to make this cute topper using my cutter set.

If using fondant I would recommend adding some tylose powder to add extra stability and help the fondant harden and dry faster.

Use any colors you like, I thought it would be fun to display a more girly looking airplane here.

You can use a straight edge to cut the airplane pieces or just do it by eye.

I like the look of 4 wings on the airplane.  When assembling the airplane, one larger wing and one smaller wing will be rotated and attached behind the airplane so it looks like it is on the other side.

I think that on the original airplane I used an even smaller piping tip to cut the circles for the windows.  Just use whatever round cutter you have on hand, or leave the windows off.

I like to let the pieces dry overnight.  If you are in a hurry, you can turn turn on your oven light and place the pieces inside your OFF oven.  The heat of the oven light bulb will start to dry your pieces out.  When removing your pieces, they will be warm to the touch.  Allow them to cool down for a few minutes before handling them.  If you do this trick, PLEASE put a piece of tape over your oven controls!  The last thing you need is to accidentally bake your airplane!

To assemble your airplane use royal icing or sugar glue and follow the arrows for placement.

I used my airplane as a cake topper, but you could just as easily place this on the side of your cake.  You can purchase the airplane cutter set here!