What's new

How to make a Rainbow Cake Topper - Tutorial (1 Viewer)

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (22) (Medium).jpg

Seeing as Rainbows and Unicorns aren't going anywhere soon, I thought it only fair to put together a tutorial to show you how to make a Rainbow Cake Topper.

This tutorial will show you two ways of making the rainbow topper using icing/fondant.

Rainbow Cake Topper by Help Me Bake (3) (Medium).jpg

Rainbow Cake Topper by Help Me Bake (1) (Medium).jpg

How do I make a Rainbow Cake Topper?

To make the Rainbow Cake Topper, you will need the following:
  • Coloured Icing/Fondant/Sugarpaste
  • 2 x Silicon Mats
  • Cake Smoother
  • Edible Glue
  • Thin Paintbrush
  • Cocktail Sticks
  • Large Knife
  • Small or Large Circle/Pastry Cutter
  • Icing Sugar for dusting. (Optional)
  • Cling film/Saran Wrap (Optional)
  • Small Cake Board (Optional)

What colours did you use to make the Rainbow?

I used the following Renshaw Icing Fondant Colours:
  • Poppy Red
  • Tiger Orange
  • Yellow
  • Lincoln Green
  • Baby Blue
  • Dusky Lavender

I made this Rainbow Topper, starting with the lavender part of the Rainbow first and working outwards until I reached Red. At the end of this tutorial, I will show you how to start from Red and work your way towards the Lavender. The way you want to do it will depend on the size of topper you want.

Important Note: I used two silicon mats when making this Rainbow; that way, I could roll out on one and then drape and assemble the rainbow on the other. If you are using two mats, you may wish to very lightly dust the mat you are going to assemble the rainbows on or place a sheet of cling film or saran wrap on it to prevent it from sticking to the mat. I didn't and had to scramble at the end of this tutorial to lift the whole rainbow and place it on a piece of creased cling film. Luckily this is only for illustration purposes, so any marks that may appear from the cling film wouldn't be an issue.

Now all the important bits are out of the way, let's get started.


Method

1 I took a blob of Dusky Lavender.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (2) (Medium).jpg

I then rolled it in my hands to make a sausage shape.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (3) (Medium).jpg

I could tell by the shape this was too big, so I split the icing fondant in half.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (4) (Medium).jpg

I then re-rolled with both my hands on the mat to lengthen the icing/fondant and then used the cake smoother back and forth to smooth the icing/fondant out without leaving indentations (finger marks) in it.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (5) (Medium).jpg

Once I was happy with the shape, I then placed (draped) it around my smallest circle/pastry cutter.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (6) (Medium).jpg

The diameter of the circle/pastry cutter is approximately 3.5 cm wide.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (35) (Medium).jpg

2 I then took the Baby Blue icing and repeated the process.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (7) (Medium).jpg

Placing the baby blue icing/fondant on top of the lavender.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (8) (Medium).jpg

3 Now for the Lincoln Green.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (9) (Medium).jpg

With this, you can see it is longer than the other colours and slightly thicker on the right-hand side.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (10) (Medium).jpg

You will also see from the below picture that there are a few holes in the Lincoln Green icing/fondant which haven't softened out. Now, normally I would have removed the icing and re-rolled it. However, because we will put another layer that will cover the imperfections, they are fine to stay where they are.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (11) (Medium).jpg

I must admit when I did these three colours, the Rainbow wasn't setting my world on fire and looked a little dull; however, once the brighter colours started to be added, it started to come to life a little.

4 I did the same process again with the yellow, take a blob, roll it out with both hands, use the cake smoother back and forth etc. Then once I added the Yellow icing/fondant to the Rainbow, this is where it started to brighten up.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (12) (Medium).jpg

You can see that all I'm doing is layering each colour on top of the previous colour.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (13) (Medium).jpg

I know at the minute, all it looks like is a lot of wonky sausages, but I promise it will resemble a rainbow when we are finished! Also, notice that I have still left the circle/pastry cutter where it was. This is so that the rainbow keeps its shape while I'm layering the colours.

5 Now for the Tiger Orange.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (14) (Medium).jpg

Again just keeping layering the colours.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (15) (Medium).jpg

You'll notice the more colours I layer on top of one another, the longer my rainbow sausage layers become. You want them longer so that as your rainbow gets bigger, they are long enough to fit around the previous layer and still have a little excess on them.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (17) (Medium).jpg

6 And finally the Red. You can see how long it is.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (18) (Medium).jpg

This was then placed over the orange to finish off the rainbow.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (19) (Medium).jpg

Now before I move on to the cutting part, here's that bit I mentioned about doing it the other way.

If you wish to start with Red first and work inwards, then do this...

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (29) (Medium).jpg

Roll it out as we did before, then drape it over your largest circle/pastry cutter or whatever size cutter you wish to start with.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (30) (Medium).jpg

This one was approximately just over 8.7 cm.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (34) (Medium).jpg

By draping it over the circle/pastry cutter, this will give you the circular shape for the exterior of your rainbow and then just make your remaining sausages in order of orange, yellow, green, blue and lavender and work inwards. These rainbow sausages should be smaller each time you make them.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (32) (Medium).jpg

If you find the shape is being knocked out slightly, then each time you add a layer, place a smaller circle/pastry cutter in the centre to help keep the shape, keep swapping out the size of pastry cutters until you're happy the shape isn't being moved, or you have finished your rainbow.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (33) (Medium).jpg

7 Now, back to the original way. Once all the rainbow colours have been done, you will need a large knife to cut off the excess. Please be careful doing this or ask an adult to help you. I used a large palette knife to do this part.

I lined the knife underneath the cutter, so I had a point of reference when cutting.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (20) (Medium).jpg


I then straightened the knife and carefully pushed it through the icing/fondant cutting off the excess.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (21) (Medium).jpg

8 I then removed the excess. Ooh, look a rainbow!

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (22) (Medium).jpg

9 I have now removed the small circle/pastry cutter and laid out some cocktails sticks.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (23) (Medium).jpg

10 Now, you can add small amounts of edible glue in between each layer. I placed a little glue on the paintbrush and ran it in between each layer. The brush should slot in between the layers of icing/fondant without you moving them. This is a good way to do this because you will be glueing in the exact place that the icing/fondant layers are touching. Make sure you add a layer of glue to each layer so that they will stick together. I then pushed some cocktail sticks into the base of the rainbow, leaving the pointed bits facing down.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (24) (Medium).jpg

11 This is the bit where I scrambled to get some cling film!

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (26) (Medium).jpg

12 I then slid the rainbow and cling film on a 6-inch cake board to give it some support when I moved it. I then left it to dry out for 2 days so it could harden up. The longer you leave it, the harder/stronger it becomes. It will then be ready to insert into your cake.

Rainbow Cake Topper Tutorial by Help Me Bake (27) (Medium).jpg

13 Please note that if you place the Rainbow topper into a dummy polystyrene cake tier, then score the holes where the cocktail sticks will sit first. If you don't, when pushing the rainbow down, this may cause the cocktail stick to force upwards and slightly damage the rainbow. This is due to the polystyrene being very hard/stiff.

Rainbow Cake Topper by Help Me Bake (2) (Medium).jpg

14 The topper will easily push into a cake because it is soft and keep its shape.

And there you have it, your very own brightly coloured rainbow! 👩‍🍳

Size
  • The overall size of this topper was 15 cm wide x 9.5 cm high.
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top