Fondant Surfboards and Cake Topper Tutorial

I decided to create this tutorial on how to make fondant surfboards and surfboard toppers while making this beach themed birthday cake. I made a total of 4 surfboards out of fondant and 2 of them were used as cake toppers.

Fondant surfboards are really quite fun to make. I say fun because decorating these surfboards is open for one’s imagination and creativity – you can decorate them with any design or artwork and that makes it so fun!

For this particular project, I attached 2 surfboards to the sides of the cake (and therefore did not require any support) while another 2 were poked on the cake as 3D fondant surfboard toppers ( and therefore were attached with 2 toothpicks each so that they could stand in an upright position on the cake.

Here is how I made the fondant surfboards:

Main supplies for making the fondant surfboards:

Surfboard template – the template was basically to make sure all 4 surfboards are of the same size. The template I used for this project was hand-drawn.
Fondant – I used Satin Ice fondant for all the surfboards and the deco on them.
CMC powder – this helps fondant set quickly and firm and so I kneaded this into fondant before rolling the fondant out.
Pizza cutter – This is my favorite tool when it comes to cutting fondant cut-outs.
Extruder tool fitted with small round disc – I used this to pipe out yellow fondant scrollwork for the red surfboard.
Star plunger cutter – I used a very small sized star cutter to cut out yellow stars for the blue surfboard.
Flower plunger cutter – This was used to cut out tiny 5 petal flowers for the red surfboard.
Clikstix numbers cutter – I used Clikstix number cutter for the number 18 on the blue fondant surfboard.
Round piping tip – I used the round piping tip to cut out tiny white polka dots for the yellow surfboard.
Sugar craft knife – this was used to cut fondant scrolls for my red surfboard.
Needle tool – I used this for my orange surfboard, to assist with the turquoise lines on it.
Toothpicks – these were used for the blue and red surfboards to hold them upright on the cake.
Fondant glue – each toothpick was dipped into fondant glue before being attached to the surfboards. This is to make sure the toothpicks remain glued to the surfboards.
Shortening – This was the glue for putting together all the deco on each surfboard.
Styrofoam dummy – I used 2 round dummies, one was 6 inches, and the other 9 inches, to assist the orange and turquoise surfboards to set to a curved shape.

How to assemble the 4 different types of surfboards:

Maroon surfboard topper

I will start with the red one.
Firstly off course was cutting out the surfboard itself. With my paper template and pizza cutter, I cut out the shape of a surfboard.

Fondant cut out and paper template in the shape of a surf board

And then I attached 2 toothpicks at the bottom.

2 toothpicks attached to the bottom of a fondant cut out in the shape of a surf board

Next was decorating the surfboard. For this, I used my extruder tool and piped out a long thin roll of fondant. With my fingers, I rolled one end of the roll to make it pointed.

A long piece of yellow fondant formed into a swirl on hand

And then I formed a scroll as shown below. I attached the scroll to the surfboard with shortening.

A maroon fondant surf board decorated with yellow fondant swirl

And then I formed another scroll and attached it as shown below:

Cutting yellow fondant swirl on a maroon fondant cut out

For the white flowers, I used my small flower plunger cutter and attached the cutouts to the surfboard with shortening.

Tiny white fondant flowers cut using a flower plunger cutter

And this was how the completed surfboard looked like. I left it on a flat surface overnight for it to set completely.

A maroon fondant surf board decorated with yellow fondant swirl and tiny white flowers

Blue fondant surfboard topper

Next was the blue surfboard. Since I was going to use it as a cake topper as well, I rolled my blue fondant, cut it out according to my paper template and attached two toothpicks to it, just as I did for my red surfboard above.

For the deco, I used yellow fondant. This surfboard topper was to hold the birthday girl’s age and therefore, I designed it such that I could put the number on it. I started with a yellow horizontal fondant cutout. My pizza cutter had 2 different blade shapes and I used the waved one to cut this horizontal piece.

A yellow fondant strip placed horizontally on a blue surf board shaped fondant cut out

I attached it to the surfboard with shortening and trimmed off the excess at the sides.

Cutting the excess of a yellow fondant strip on a blue fondant piece with a pizza cutter

Next was the number ’18’ and star cut outs.

Numbers 1 and 8 cut out of yellow fondant with a number cutter

Tiny yellow fondant stars and a stars plunger cutter

I attached the number above the horizontal line and placed the stars randomly below the line. I then let the surfboard set in a flat lying position.

Dark blue fondant surf board with toothpicks attached, decorated with yellow stars, a horizontal yellow strip and number 18

Orange and yellow surfboards

The next two surfboards did not have any toothpicks as support. These were for the sides of my cake, hence they did not require any toothpicks as support. Again, similar to the above 2 designs, I cut them out using my paper template.

Yellow fondant surfboard

The deco for the yellow board is pretty straightforward. I cut the ribbed vertical line in the center with my pizza cutter. And then cut the polka dots using my medium-sized round piping tip. I attached all these to the board with shortening.

A white vertical piece of fondant on a yellow fondant cut out in the shape of a surf board

Using a pizza cutter to cut out excess white fondant of a yellow fondant cut out

Tiny white fondant cut outs and a medium sized round piping tip

Yellow fondant surf board with white polka dots and a white vertical line design

To allow the surfboard to set in a curved position, I placed it on the sides of a Styrofoam dummy while waiting to be put on the cake.

Yellow fondant surf board with white polka dots, on the sides of a styrofoam dummy

Orange edible surfboard

And finally for the orange board. For this one, I wanted to create slanting turquoise lines on it. To do this, I cut out a piece of turquoise fondant using my paper template. I attached it to the orange one.

Fondant cut out in the shape of a surfboard with a piece of blue cut out on top

Next, using my pizza cutter and a clean ruler, I cut horizontal lines as shown below:

Fondant cut out in the shape of a surfboard in orange with blue stripes. Using a pizza cutter to cut the lines

Fondant cut out in the shape of a surfboard in orange with blue stripes

The intention here is to only cut the turquoise piece, so I was careful not to exert too much pressure when cutting so that the orange piece underneath does not get cut through. After cutting the lines, I used my needle tool to carefully remove unwanted turquoise fondant as shown below: