Cakes with dual themes or messages are so fun! This World Map Travel Cake – Birthday Cake Ideas was for two twin boys celebrating their ninth birthday in correlation to their family moving from one country to another and making a few stops along the way. What a wonderful way to mark a birthday and a farewell party with friends!
Fully Covered Fondant Cake
Fully covering cakes with fondant takes much patience and practice. Personally, I prefer covering round cakes versus square or rectangular cakes. The corners are such a challenge and I would never claim to be perfect at it. It’s always a work in progress. Edged “rounded” corners are absolutely fine as well so don’t stress if they’re not razor sharp.
Your cake needs to be smoothly covered with a 1/8-1/4″ layer of buttercream frosting so the fondant has something to stick to along with having a layer of frosting between the cake and the fondant. This also helps the fondant lay smooth to flatten bumps.
After kneading your fondant roll it (to a minimum 1/8″ thickness to prevent tearing-but not much thicker than this) on a non-stick surface or silicon mat (lightly dusted with cornstarch) in the shape of your cake and measurements of the height of all sides x width + added 2 inches of flexibility on all sides.
Once you’ve unrolled and draped the fondant (with the help of your rolling pin) from one end of the cake to the other use your hand or a flat fondant smoother tool to smooth the top of the cake releasing air bubbles and bumps. Avoid fingernails and jewelry. These are detrimental to the smoothness of fondant. To learn what to do next in more detail please visit my How-To Cover A Cake With Fondant – Fondant 101.
3D Fondant Cake Toppers
There is so much versatility working with fondant or gum paste when creating 3D Cake Toppers. I prefer to make as many cake toppers (depending on the cake design) in advance 1-2 days before cake-making day stored in airtight containers. This saves a lot of time.
Naturally, you may need to make cake toppers in the cake design moments for proper scaling depending on what you’re doing.
I have also made 3D fondant cake toppers in advance that was not the right size for the design for which I ended up not using them or had to remake them. It happens sometimes but if you have a good sense of scale it won’t happen often.
Once you learn how to cut, manipulate, mold, and apply sugar paste decorations to cakes you’ll be amazed at what you can create. Check out my Top 15 Cake Decorating Tools – Must-Have Essentials to learn what you need for successful cake decorating.
Scale and Cake Design Layout
Scale and Cake Design Layout is very important. Understanding design/decoration size is imperative because if you don’t have a clear grasp regarding these elements your cake design will not translate well, it will be totally noticeable and not in a good way.
Do not initially attempt the decoration layout on the cake itself. Sometimes you cannot hide indentations or mistakes if you change your mind and want to move things around. You could also ruin your fondant cake toppers by handling them too much.
I recommend turning your cake pan upside down, lining it with parchment paper, and playing with the layout of your fondant decorations. You can also sketch on transparent paper over the cake pan first sizing your decorations then proceed to cut or mold your 3D Fondant Cake Toppers.
Decorating Tips and Tricks
Take small breaks in-between each phase of decorating. Like an artist- stand back, look at your canvas, ask yourself if this the way you want everything to look. Going too fast, not looking at your work or alignment will cause you to make mistakes. So stop, breathe, look, and access. Don’t forget to take pictures or videos of your entire creative process. Inquiring minds want to know! Be sure to check my other cake baking tips and tricks.
World Map Travel Cake – Birthday Cake Ideas
I hope this World Map Travel Cake – Birthday Cake Ideas inspired you! Thanks for visiting. Happy cake decorating!
For more Travel Cake Ideas check out my Travel Cake with Map and Luggage Cake Toppers – FUN and 3D.