Fondant Letters for Cake Decorating

I love 3D fondant letters on cakes, especially on cakes that are have other 3d or 2d deco elements. They complement the cakes really well and stand out as a cake decoration on their own.

Poster showing 4 different cakes with 3d fondant letters decoration

My 3D fondant letters are made using cutters. I bought these from a local cake decorating shop. The cutters themselves are quite thick, making it easy to cut out thick pieces of fondant letters.

I use these cutters quite often in my cake decorating projects and I am going to share on this page, my tips and tricks on how to use these cutters for cake decorating.

How to Make 3D Fondant Letters

These are the main supplies to make the letters:

Fondant – I use Satin Ice fondant
CMC powder – I use this to stabilize the fondant so that it dries quickly and harder. Tylose powder can also be used in place of CMC powder.
Alphabet cutters – The cutters must be deep so that they can accommodate the thick fondant used to cut the letters.
Icing sugar to dust
Needle tool – I use this tool to help remove excess fondant from the cutters (especially on tiny corners of the cutters).
Small rolling pin – This is quite an important tool for these 3D fondant letters, not just to roll the fondant but more for tapping the fondant out of the cutters.

And this is how I cut the letters:

I start by mixing CMC powder into fondant. I knead the fondant until the powder is well incorporated into it.
Next, I roll the fondant. I roll it thick so that the fondant letters that are cut out could stand upright without any support.

Fondant alphabet cutters in letters L, I, S and A

This is roughly how thick I roll the fondant in comparison to the cutter thickness (about 1cm in thickness).

A piece of rolled fondant with a letter L cutter at the side

And before pressing the cutters into the rolled fondant, I make sure I dip them in icing sugar. This helps in releasing the fondant letters from the cutters.

A thick rolled fondant, with a letter L cut out of it. In the background is letter L cutter

Once cut out, I use my needle tool to remove any excess fondant around the cutters, especially the small corners. I normally clean the sides off fondant first before attempting to release the letter cutouts.

Using a needle tool to remove excess fondant from an alphabet cutter

Most of the time, despite the icing sugar dusting, the fondant will not release readily. And this is where my small rolling pin comes in handy. I tap the cutters (with the fondant letter still inside) while holding the cutter in my hands as shown below until the fondant is released.
I must say, this can take some time especially for letters with more lines and curves as opposed to simple ones like the letter L and letter I.

Using a small rolling pin to knock out fondant from an alphabet cutter

And this is how my letter L turn out after the tapping process:

Attaching the fondant letters onto cakes

I repeat the process for all letters and once done, take each of the letters, try to position them standing upright, and make sure the bottom is flat so that when the letters are dry, they can stand upright stable. If the bottoms are not flat, I gently press the bottoms against a cake board until they are flat and even.

Fondant cut out using alphabet cutters to form the name LISA

I let the letters rest in a lying down position until they are completely set. Once set, I attach the letters to fondant covered cake with some fondant glue.

Tip: If you plan to use these letters on a buttercream covered cake, I would suggest that each letter is attached a toothpick at the bottom. This way, the letters can be poked into the cake and they will hold in place securely.

This is how I make my 3D fondant letters. And here are some of my cake projects that feature these upright standing fondant letters.