3D Fondant Olaf Cake Topper Tutorial

I made this 3D Olaf cake topper for a Frozen-themed birthday cake and cupcakes. This 3D cake topper was for the cake and I must admit I really enjoyed making this guy in fondant.

3D Olaf cake topper on a light blue round cake decorated with Frozen theme

Though the cake topper looks rather complicated to make particularly with the body not in a straight line, it was really not that difficult to put Olaf together. The key lies in understanding how to structure it so that it can be well supported to stand as a 3D topper on the cake.

When I made this cake and the Olaf cake topper, it was for a customer. And I did not capture any step by step photos or videos then. So I recreated the 3D fondant Olaf cake topper, solely for the purpose of this tutorial (see the image below). Hence, you might find some variations in this version of Olaf compared to the one I made earlier on (as seen in the complete cake picture above).

3D Olaf cake topper with its arms stretched out

How to Make 3D Fondant Olaf Cake Topper - Video

Here is a short video tutorial of me making this 3D fondant Olaf cake topper.

Step by Step Tutorial

These are the main supplies needed:

Fondant – I used Satin Ice fondant in white, orange and black . These were the only colors on Olaf besides brown for his stick arms, but since I did not use fondant to make the stick arms, only these 3 colors were required.
CMC – Since I was using fondant and not gum paste, I used CMC to help the fondant set firm and hard. Having said that, I only added CMC to the white and orange fondant. It was not necessary for the eyes (black) since the amount used was very little and I did not shape any 3D features with it.
Wire – This was what helped Olaf stand up in one piece despite his not so straight body sections. I used gauge 18 floral wire. I also used wire for Olaf’s stick arms. Since it has to be really thin, I used a gauge 30 wire and painted it in brown using Wilton brown food coloring.
Food coloring – I used Wilton brown food paste color to paint Olaf’s stick arms that I made using floral wire.
Lollipop stick – I used the lollipop stick as a cover for the wire that extends out from the bottom of Olaf. The main purpose was to avoid direct contact of the wire with the cake when the topper is attached to the cake.
Fondant shaping tools - I used these to shape Olaf's mouth.
Sugarcraft knife - I used this knife for all the little cuttings I had to do on fondant to make Olaf.
Olaf template - I printed this off the internet. The template helped me in making sure my Olaf was is the right proportion of the Disney Olaf.
Fondant glue – This was the glue I used to hold Olaf together, including his nose, eyes, buttons, and arms.

And this was how I assembled the topper:

Firstly, I prepared my Olaf template. This helped me get Olaf's body and face in the right proportions. The template was printed off the internet (I found it via a simple image search on Google).

Making the hands

Once I had the template ready, I started working on the topper itself. The first step was to form Olaf's stick hands. I used 2 equal length strips of thin wire for the arms.
To make the arms, I folded each wire into half. And then I bent the wire into a zig-zag pattern on both sides such that I could form 2 fingers on both sides, resulting in each arm having 3 fingers. I then painted them in dark brown and left them aside for the paint to dry.

Wire shaped like arms of Olaf painted in brown, on a painting palette.

Body parts

After that, I moved on to the fondant. I started by kneading CMC into it. I used about a handful of white fondant to make the entire figurine. For this amount of fondant, I added about ½ teaspoon of CMC.
Next, I divided the fondant to make up Olaf's face, body, and legs. These were just estimates and I refined them further as I worked on each section of the figurine.

Olaf's 3 body components on a paper template

Olaf cake topper structure

Olaf's face

I started with the face. I shaped it into a diamond-like shape but with the top and bottom rounded instead of pointed.

Next, I used my fondant tool to mark a smiling mouth for Olaf. I did this by gently pressing in the section that was to form his mouth.

And then I rolled some black fondant and cut it out into a triangle with rounded corners. This piece was then attached to the area which was compressed for Olaf's mouth.

And then I added Olaf’s teeth which was rolled white fondant that was cut into a rectangle shape.

Olaf's body and legs

Next were the body and legs. The body was very straight forward to make. It's just 2 pieces of round fondant- one small round on top a larger round fondant ball. And then I pinched another 2 pieces of fondant of equal size, rolled them round, and flattened them slightly to form Olaf’s his feet.

Facial features

Next, I moved on to Olaf's facial features. Using the end of my paint brush, I marked 3 holes on Olaf’s face, 2 for his eyes and one for the nose.

Using the back of a paint brush to poke a hole on Olaf's face for his nose

I formed a tiny orange cone with orange fondant and attached it onto the face with fondant glue. In fact, I made this nose earlier, after forming Olaf's stick arms as I wanted to give time for the nose to harden. It is easier to attach the nose when it is firm.

Similarly for the eyes, I formed 2 tiny small white balls and attached them to his eye sockets. And then I rolled 2 pieces of smaller black fondant balls and attached on the white balls.

Assembling Olaf

This was followed by the three buttons on his body.
I used my template as a close guide in making Olaf so that I get the structure right. Once I had all the components ready, I arranged them flat on my work surface in the way I want Olaf to be structured (which is pretty much the same as my template), and only then did I insert my wire through from the bottom. I brushed my wire with fondant glue before inserting through Olaf and gently applied fondant glue between each section of Olaf so that they all remain in place securely.

Assembling Olaf Cake Topper

And then, I attached his stick arms. I simply brushed the ends with my fondant glue and poked the arms into Olaf’s body, using my template as guide to position the arms.

I also added Olaf’s eye brows with 2 thin strips of rolled black fondant. All these were attached with fondant glue.

Tiny black fondant brows on a piece of white paper

I left Olaf to set in a horizontal position overnight. Only when he was completely set did I set him in an upright position so that all the parts do not lose shape due to weight and compression effect.