Laptop Cake for 71st Birthday - A Decorating Tutorial

Want to learn how to make an easy laptop cake? Here is one such cake I made for my dad’s 71st birthday. There was nothing complicated about the cake, I was able to put it all together fairly quickly. Read on to see how I decorated this cake.

A laptop cake for my dad on his 71st birthday

I made this laptop cake for my dad’s 71st birthday. My dad has a lot of interest in computers and knows quite a lot too so much so that I took him along to help me choose a laptop when I bought mine a couple of years back (I am not a computer tech person, I use it a lot but  hardly have any idea about the machines themselves).

And yes, at the age of 71, my dad is still the person I turn to first if I have any queries or problems with my computer. 

So back to the cake. Since it was his birthday and I have never really incorporated anything relating to computers for his cake designs in the past, I settled on a laptop cake for his 71st birthday.

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Here is how I made the Laptop Cake

These were the main supplies I used:

• Cake – the cake measured 10 inches by 6 inches rectangle. I have a cake pan in that measurement, so I just baked 2 layers of cake in it. Each layer was approximately 2 inches high so when stacked, the cake was close to 4 inches high. I used my butter pound cake recipe for the cake.
• Buttercream – I used buttercream to fill the cake layers and crumb coat the cake. 
• Fondant – The whole cake was covered in fondant. I used Satin Ice fondant in white, black and orange and mixed food coloring into white fondant for the rest of the colors on the cake.
• Styrofoam sheet – I used this for the laptop screen. I purchased the foam uncut from a local stationary shop and cut out a rectangle piece for the computer screen. 
• Edible Image – I used an edible image for the laptop keyboard. I downloaded the image off the internet and ordered a print of it from a local edible images printing vendor. 
• Glitter dust – I used gold glitter dust for the “Happy 71st Birthday” wordings on the cake. 
• Shortening – I used shortening as the glue for the entire project. 
• Skewers – I used food-grade wooden skewers to attach the laptop screen to its body.
• Alphabet cutters – I used 2 different types of letter cutters on this cake, one is a Clikstix cutter while the other one (smaller font) is an FMM cutter. 
• Gum paste – I used gum paste for the wordings on the cake. I used Satin Ice white gum paste and tinted it red.

The side view of my laptop cake

And this was how I decorated the cake:

• Since I needed a custom made edible image for the cake, I had to order it a few days in advance. 
• I also prepared the laptop screen in advance. I measured and cut out the Styrofoam and covered it with white fondant. And then I cut out a rectangle piece of black fondant and attached to one side of the Styrofoam. I then cut out additional strips of black fondant and attached a frame for the black screen. After that, I added the wordings on the cake and the 2 large red hearts.
• Next was the cake itself. Once baked, I levelled and filled and crumb coat it with buttercream. Then I covered it with black fondant. And then, with the help of a skewer, I marked a horizontal line all around the cake to separate the laptop and the striped base the laptop was sitting on. 
• I then rolled a piece of white fondant, covered the top of the cake, trimming it off just slightly after the top edge of the cake. 
• And then I completed the colored strips all around the cake. Next, I rolled my red fondant and attached it all around the cake, both at the top and bottom of the colored strips. 
• And before placing the edible image keypad on the cake, I attached the screen first so that I could estimate the right placing for the keyboard and the rest of the images on the keyboard.
• Finally, I added the birthday message on the cake board. And the cake was ready.

Cake in the shape of a laptop

And that was how I made my laptop cake. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial. If you have any comments, please leave them in the comments section below, I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Happy Decorating 🙂

A laptop birthday cake