I got the general idea for this Topsy Turvey cake from various site such as www.pinkcakebox.com. This was actually for my own 30th birthday party. I loved the idea, and my husband priced out having a bakery make it, but it was going to be very expensive, so I decided to take it on myself.
I used 12″, 10″ and 8″ cakes stacked at an angle to create the topsy turvey effect. The bottom layer was chocolate chip pound cake with buttercream filling. The middle was chocolate cake with coconut buttercream filling and the top was lemon ginger cake with raspberry buttercream filling.
After the cakes were baked and iced with buttercream, I used store bought rolled fondant to cover each cake. I then made chocolate fondant by adding melted candy melts to the store bought fondant and added black gel coloring to get black fondant. To make the zebra stripes, I rolled the fondant to approximately 1/8″ thick and used an exacto knife to free hand the stripes. I rolled out long strips of fondant to make the “30” and allowed it to dry flat overnight.
I cut various size triangles and drops to decorate the top layer. I then rolled small balls of pink and black fondant to make the border. I used black buttercream to create the swirls on the middle layer. The bow was a store bought, paper clay bow. I followed package instructions to dye it pink. I mixed pink icing coloring with water and dipped the bow into the water until the desired color was achieved, allowing it to dry 30-45 minutes between dips.
Once dry, I used buttercream to secure the bow to the top of the cake.
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Natalie…could you give a little direction as to how to create the Topsy turvey effect? Were the cakes (specifically the top two tiers) cut at an angle on the bottom to create this look, and were they each decorated or covered in fondant separately on their own cardboard round before stacking? Were dowels used to reinforce before stacking each tier? Most important, how did you keep them from sliding, or was that not an issue? BTW very cool cake! Thanks, Arlene
I’m turning 30 next month and I wish someone made me a cake this awesome! :) Absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Great Job!
I did not cut the cakes at an angle. I just made the buttercream between the layers thicker on one side to create the Topsy Turvey effect. Each cake was covered with fondant individually, and then stacked. I used small dowel rods in each layer to keep the cakes from sliding. Once stacked, I also inserted a 1/2″ dowel down through the center of all 3 cakes. I had scored x’s in the bottom center of each cake board, and then filed one end of my dowel to a point to make it slide through the cakes more easily. I transported this cake in the back of my SUV across town to the party location and the cakes did not move at all.
Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Thanks Stacy! It was a lot of fun to make.