Elephant Cake Toppers

My friend's son's birthday was coming up and she was looking for someone to help make elephants to go on top of the birthday cake. The birthday boy loves elephants, you see. It was a little strange for me to just make the fondant cake toppers without having to bake the cake to put them on! Suddenly I felt like a sculptor instead of a baker/cake decorator. Hehe.

Fondant Elephant Cake Toppers

My youngest daughter's first birthday party is coming up in February and she's having an elephant-themed party as well, so this was a good opportunity for me to practice my elephant-making skills. (Sounds funny, right?)

family of elephants

I made a grey "papa" elephant, a pink "mama" elephant and a blue elephant for the birthday boy! To shape their bodies, I rolled some fondant into a ball, and then gently rolled one end into a snake until it was long enough to be the trunk. I gently bent the trunk so that it would dry in a nice position. It is impossible to reposition once the fondant has fully hardened, without it cracking or breaking off. 

papa elephant

I used the handle of a small brush to make a dent for their feet. The elephants' ears were cut out of fondant using a small heart cutter. I dotted on their eyes using an edible food marker. Each elephant is about 5cm wide.

mama elephant

birthday boy elephant

I couldn't resist adding a floating balloon for the blue elephant to hold. It is his birthday, after all! The balloon is supported just using a piece of wire. Make sure the elephant is fully dried before putting the wire with the balloon on it into his trunk, or the weight of the balloon will cause the wire to burrow its way all the way through the elephant and make an undesired exit out of his trunk! (pre-make the hole in the trunk where the wire should go so that the elephant doesn't crack later when you stab the wire in)

floating balllon!

I added a hand-cut number 1 to the balloon too, cuz I thought the birthday boy was celebrating his 1st birthday! Haaa. Oops, it's actually his 3rd! I scraped off the "1" and put a "3" instead, but I forgot to take a picture. 

it's an elephant birthday party!