I made this glamorous 21st birthday cake for a young lady who happens to be a national badminton player for Malaysia. The cake was ordered by the birthday girl’s mother. She asked for the cake to be decorated with a human figure topper to depict her daughter and a red BMW topper that was supposedly her daughter’s dream car.
Glamorous 21st birthday cake
This cake was ordered together with a set of twelve 21st birthday cupcakes. Each cupcake had one human figurine topper on depicting the members of the family. It was the mother’s idea to present the cupcakes to the girl as a token of their love for her. Click here to read more about the cupcakes.
Back to the 21st birthday cake. This was a square cake, measuring approximately 9 inches in width and 4 inches in height. I baked it using my butter pound cake recipe. The deco on the cake itself was pretty straightforward except for the toppers which took me a while to make.
How to Make a 21st Birthday Cake
Main supplies for the 21st birthday cake:
Raw Materials
- Cake – this was a 9 inches square cake with a height of approximately 4 inches. The cake was baked in 2 separate tins. I sandwiched it together with a layer of buttercream. I used my butter pound cake recipe for the cake.
- Buttercream – I used vanilla buttercream for this cake, not only as a filling between the cake layers but also to crumb coat the cake.
- Fondant – I used Satin Ice for the cake. For the mint green color, I added Americolor Mint Green to white fondant. The other colors I used on the cake were dark green (a mix of Satin Ice green and black), red, black and white.
- CMC powder – I added this to fondant for the upright standing 3D letters on the cake as well as the wheels.
- Gum paste – I used Satin Ice gum paste to make the human figure. I also used gum paste for the “Happy Birthday’ letters on the cake.
- Fondant glue
- Shortening
- Silver paint – I used my silver airbrush color to paint the silver parts on the car topper.
Decorating tools
- Styrofoam block – this formed base of the car topper on the 21st birthday cake.
- Styrofoam cutter – I used a small battery-operated one to form a Styrofoam block into a basic shape of a car. And then I used a pen knife to cut out the seating compartment as well as the holes on all 4 sides of the cake for the wheels.
- Floral wire – I used 24 gauge wire to form the internal structure for the human figurine.
- Alphabet cutters – I used 2 types in this project. The first was for the 3D standing letters for the birthday girl’s name. I purchased this set from a local cake decorating supply shop. The other type is FMM alphabet cutters. I used this for the “Happy Birthday’’ lettering for the cake.
- Plaque cutter set
- Fondant extruder – I used this for the plaque’s white border.
- Round cutter set – I used this for the polka dots on the cake and the wheels.
- Black edible food marker – I used the marker to draw the human figurine eyes and eye brows.
- Lollipop sticks – Since the human figure was wired, I inserted the wire that held the figurine into a lollipop stick before poking it into the cake. This was to avoid direct contact of the wire with the cake.
Assembling the cake:
The glamorous human figurine and the car topper
- I started by making the human figure and car toppers first. The figurine was wired, and I made it based on the lessons I learned at Craftsy.
Glamorous 21st birthday cake
- The car, on the other hand, was not wired. However, it had a Styrofoam block as its core. I used a Styrofoam cutter and my penknife to shape the foam block into the shape of a convertible car and then wrapped it in red fondant. I then added the seat details in black and used the same black for the wheels.
- Since this was supposed to be a BMW, I added a small BMW logo at the front of the car. This logo was hand-painted. The silver details on the car were also hand-painted.
- There was also a tiny handbag, next to the girl figure. I shaped this by hand in brown.
The 21st birthday cake
- To begin with, I covered the entire cake in green fondant. I used the same color to cover the cake board as well. And then I added medium sized white polka dots randomly all over the cake.
The birthday girl's name
- The birthday girl’s name was Soniia and I made the name using my alphabet cutters. And I added CMC to the fondant before rolling and cutting out the letters. This is to help it set hard and firm. I let the letters harden in a horizontal position before attaching them to the birthday cake with glue.
21st birthday cake with a lady figurine and car topper
The 21st birthday cake border
- As for the cake border, I formed random sized balls in white, mint and dark green. And I attached them to the bottom edge of the cake with shortening. Again, there was no particular order as far as the colors were concerned. I simply put these on in random order.
- And finally, for the ‘Happy Birthday’ message on the cake, I used my FMM block alphabet cutters. I also used a plaque cutter for the dark green plaque. The letters were attached to the plaque using shortening. I did this before I put the plaque up on the side of the cake. Again, I used shortening to attach the plaque to the cake. To complete the 21st birthday cake deco, I added a thin white border around the plaque. My extruder made it easy for me to pipe a smooth border for this plaque.
Glamorous 21st birthday cake
And that's that. My elegant 21st birthday cake decorating guide.
Happy Decorating 🙂
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