I made this Smurfs cake for my nephew’s first birthday. I must say, this was a challenging cake to decorate especially when it comes to making the Smurfs in fondant, but yet, it was exciting as the cake design and shape was not a typical stacked round cake.
The Smurfs figurines were made entirely of fondant and totally edible. The mushroom was all cake that has been covered in fondant. The tree trunk, however, was half cake and half Styrofoam block. I started the bottom half with a 9 inch round Styrofoam block (3 inches high) and the actual cake which was also a 9 inch round cake measuring 4 inches in height was placed on the Styrofoam block and together, both were covered in fondant.
Smurfs Cake Idea
My sister did not want too much cake, hence the use of the Styrofoam base. She also ordered a set of Smurfs themed cupcakes for the son’s birthday party and so did not need much cake.
Overall, the most time-consuming process was making the Smurfs cake toppers. It was quite tricky to get the face to look exactly like the real Smurfs and I had to make them a few times to get them right. The rest of the deco was pretty straightforward.
How to Make a Smurfs Cake
Main supplies for the Smurfs cake:
Raw Material
- Cake – I used my butter pound cake recipe for the cake.
- Styrofoam – This was used for the bottom half of the tree trunk.
- Buttercream – I used buttercream to fill the cake as well as to crumb coat the cake and cupcakes.
- Fondant – The entire cake, including cupcakes, were covered and decorated in fondant. I used Satin Ice .
- CMC powder – This was added to fondant when making 3d deco on the cake such as the lettering and the balloon. CMC helps fondant to dry firmer and is particularly helpful when making upright standing pieces.
- Floral wire – I used floral wire as the balloon string.
- Food colors – I used a combination of AmeriColor and Wilton food colors for this project.
- Fondant glue & Shortening – these were the glue agents in this project.
Tools:
- Alphabet cutters - These cutters from a local cake decorating supplies shop.
- Cake decorating brush – I used a fine-tipped brush to dot the mushroom tops on the cake board with white food coloring.
- Sugar craft knife – this was a multipurpose cutting tool and used generally thought out the entire project.
- Needle scriber tool – I used this tool to mark wood grain patterns on fondant.
- Extruder tool – I used the extruder to make the door and window frames for the mushroom house on the cake.
- Round plunger cutter – I used the largest cutter in the set to cut out white polka dots for the mushroom cake top.
- Flower plunger cutter – This cutter was for the red flowers placed randomly along the grass at the base of the mushroom cake as well as the flower held in hand by Smurfette.
- Fondant modeling tool set – these were used to make the Smurf and Smurfette figurine on the cake.
- Food grade cling wrap – This was to wrap the Styrofoam block so that it did not come into direct contact with the real cake.
- Pizza cutting wheel - I used this to cut out the grass in the project.
Decorating the Smurfs cake:
Smurf cake toppers
- I started by making the Smurfs figurines. There were 2 of them on the cake, 1 to represent the birthday boy and the other, the Smurfette to represent his elder sister.
- I used white fondant and tinted it blue for their bodies. I also added CMC powder to the fondant so that the figurines would hold their shapes firmly and dry faster. For the hats, dress, and stockings, I used white and for Smurfette’s hair, I used Satin Ice yellow. To make the hair, I rolled some yellow fondant thin, used a needle tool to draw lines on it, and then placed the piece on the head, arranging it in such a way that it looks like the hair.
- The balloon in the Smurf’s hand was made in red. I added some CMC to it first. And it was poked into a cut floral wire.
The tree trunk cake
- Closer to the event date, I baked the cakes. For the tree trunk, I baked 2 layers of 9 inches round cakes. I leveled them, sandwiched with buttercream and stacked them on a 3 inches high Styrofoam block (which was also 9 inches in diameter) that has been wrapped with a cling wrap. I then crumb coated the entire tree trunk (both the Styrofoam block and the cake). Next, I added lumps of fondant randomly around the cake as roots. I shaped these lumps such that they look like the tree roots. Since my cake board was not too big, I made them fairly short.
- And then I covered the top of the cake in light brown. I covered just the top. The sides were covered with a darker shade of brown. For the sides, I tinted some white fondant in brown and wrapped it around the cake. For the top edges, I trimmed them off carefully with a knife, leaving some parts slightly higher than the rest. After that, I used my needle tool to draw wood grain pattern all around the tree trunk. To complete the tree trunk, I painted the sides with brown food color (diluted lightly with water).
The grass border
- Next, was the green grass all around the tree. For this, I rolled out some green strips (about 1 and a half inches wide and used my pizza cutting wheel to cut out random triangle patterns on one edge of the strip. I attached the grass all around the sides of the tree base with shortening. In doing this, I made sure the top of the grass was not entirely attached to the cake.
- And I manually adjusted the grass so that some were bent while others are slightly moved for a more natural grass look.
The mushroom cake
- For the mushroom stalk, I baked 2 layers of 4 inches round cakes and for the mushroom top, I baked another cake in a stainless-steel bowl. I stacked the 4 inches round cakes together with buttercream and carved the tops so that the diameter is slightly smaller at the top than the bottom. And then I covered its sides in ivory. I purposely did not cover the top as it was going to be topped with the mushroom top.
- I decorated the front of the mushroom with a large door. The door was cut out in brown. The wood grain pattern on the door was by hand. I used my needle tool to draw the pattern and attached the door to the cake with shortening. For the door frame, I used my extruder tool fitted with a circular disc to pipe out a long strip of ivory and attached it as the door frame with the help of shortening.
- I made a window on the other side of the mushroom in a similar manner.
- For the mushroom top, I used the cake I baked in the bowl mold and covered it in red. I made sure I tucked about 2 centimeters of the fondant underneath the cake. Once the red fondant was on, I turned the cake upside down. And I added a round ivory piece to cover the bottom.
Assembling the Smurfs birthday cake
- To assemble the cakes, lifted the mushroom stalk and placed it on the cake. I then poked a dowel rod right in the center of the stalk all the way down into the tree bark. And in doing this, I made sure there was extra dowel rod above the stalk to hold the mushroom top. And then I carefully lifted the mushroom top and placed it on the stalk. The dowel rod helped to hold it in place on the cake.
- Next, I added white polka dots on the cake. I cut these using my round plunger cutter. These were attached with shortening.
- For the base of the mushroom stalk, I added grass, similar to the tree. And I added some flowers around it in random order.
The 3D alphabets
- After the mushroom and the tree trunk, I went on to make the lettering. I used blue fondant and added some CMC to it. I cut out the letters using my medium-sized letter cutters. And I left them to set and harden in a horizontal position until they were firm enough to stand upright. And then, I attached these letters onto the cake and the cake board with glue.
- For the letters on the cake top, I purposely left an obvious gap in the birthday boy’s name (the name consisted of 2 words so it was easier to split it) to make way for the walkway to the mushroom house.
The walkway
- For the walkway, I used light brown fondant and cut out rectangle strips which I arranged on the cake towards the mushroom door. I attached these to the cake with shortening.
- Next to go on the cake were the tiny 3D mushrooms on the cake board. I formed these by hand in white and red. And I added CMC to the fondant so that the mushrooms could stand upright and stable on the cake board.
- For the stalks, I used white fondant and for the tops, I used red. The white dots, I painted using white food coloring and a fine-tipped cake decorating brush. And these mushrooms were attached to the cake board with glue.
- And finally, to complete the assemble, I placed the Smurfs figurines on the cake. The Smurfette in a sitting position on the tree trunk while the Smurf on the mushroom top. To ensure the Smurf remained stable on the cake, I attached him to the cake with the help of a thin wooden pick.
And with that, the Smurfs cake was complete.
Smurfs Cake Idea
Smurf Cupcakes
- I also had a set of Smurfs cupcakes to match the cake. My sister ordered the Smurf themed cupcake picks elsewhere and requested that I made the cupcakes with plain fondant topping. And so I made the cupcakes covered in colors to match the overall theme colors of the Smurfs cake – red, blue, and white.
Smurfs Cake Idea
And that’s that. Smurfs cake for a 1st year birthday.
Happy Decorating 🙂
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