You won’t believe how easy it so customizes and make edible cake toppers (or any edible cake decorations) from home!
Using candy melts and sprinkles, number cake toppers help make birthday parties themed and personalized in just minutes.
Where did this Edible Topper Idea come from?
We initially saw this fantastic inspirational idea watching creator @kendragroves freehand during a cake tutorial. This cake topper idea can be translated into any design you want!
See her recipe video below to see how she did it:
Why you will love Birthday Party Cake Toppers
Making edible cake toppers has never been easier! While you can def buy specific edible decorations with birthday themes, making cupcake toppers and cake toppers is incredibly easy.
If you are good at freehanding, you can draw directly on the parchment paper.
However, finding templates to trace from or using our free cake topper templates works excellent! No matter your skill level, it’s super easy to add hearts, flowers, butterflies, and number cake toppers to a wedding cake, holiday cake, or birthday cake.
Ingredients
- candy melts – Candy melts come in various colors or can be dyed to match the custom colors you need.
- Sprinkles – There are plenty of amazing sprinkle medleys in the typical store, but Amazon has some gorgeous mixes for personalized ideas.
- Lollipop sticks – You will need lollipop sticks to hold the designs and numbers upright. GET LOLLIPOP STICKS HERE.
- Number template – Download a free numbers template here or create your own.
- Birthday cake or cupcakes – We used a pre-made 6″ cake from the grocery store.
How to make Edible Toppers for Cakes
- Place the template onto a cutting board and top with wax paper.
- Place candy melts into a resealable sandwich bag but do not seal.
- Heat for 60 seconds at 50% power. Knead the bag and flip over.
- Repeat and knead the bag until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Seal the bag and snip the tip.
- Pipe the chocolate onto the wax paper, following the template. Keep the chocolate thick.
- Top with sprinkles. Let stand to harden.
- Carefully peel the number from the wax paper and flip it over.
- Reheat the bag of chocolate (30 seconds at 50% power) if no longer melted.
- Pipe chocolate onto the back and gently press the stick into the chocolate. Cover the back of the number with chocolate and add sprinkles.
- Let stand to harden.
- Gently press the stick into your cake.
Expert Tips
- I think it’s best if you put the stick on off-center. For example, put it on the side vs. the center of the number, so more of the stick is attached to the number.
- It might be easier to put wax paper on a cutting board and put the cutting board onto a rimmed baking sheet so that the sprinkles stay on the baking sheet.
- Make sure you keep your chocolate thick and press the sprinkles into the sides.
Edible Numbers Template
Click the image below to download a 3 page PDF file with common numbers and shapes to trace.
We realized while re-testing this idea that the FONT matters on the template if you are using one. Tighter fonts (like we used here) are harder to trace and don’t leave enough space to recognize a number from far away. Choose a font (especially when dealing with letters or numbers with negative space like 8’s and 0’s) that have tons of clarity.
More Edible Cake Decoration Ideas
Making chocolate numbers or decorations is only part of customizing great desserts for a themed birthday! Try some of the following suggestions as well:
- Edible Luster Dust – Luster dust is a great way to bring excellent colors like rose gold to a cake. Get Luster Dust Here.
- Grape Tangulu – This grape tanghulu recipe is fantastic for putting crunchy candy-coated grapes on a cake.
- Edible Glitter – There is nothing prettier than gold glitter on a cake! Get Edible Glitter Here.
- Create edible images using Icing sheets, wafer paper, or rice paper. Use edible food pens to draw designs or words.
Sprinkle size matters. When using fancy sprinkles (as we tested), the larger sprinkle balls or jimmies can block some shapes on smaller pipped numbers or letters. Finer sprinkles or large fonts keep the sprinkles from overpowering the decoration.
- Sprinkles: Grab favorite sprinkles or decorating sprinkles for the sides of a cake. GET AWESOME SPRINKLES HERE.
- Edible Colors: Dye frosting, chocolate, and cake mix with edible food colors. My favorite brand is COLOR RIGHT by Wilton for the prettiest bold rainbow colors.
- Chocolate Bark Pieces – Use colorful chocolate bark, as this magical unicorn bark recipe, to create a gorgeous splash of color on the top of cake and cupcakes. It pairs fantastically with chocolate numbers too!
Related Dessert Recipes
- Ice Cream Creme Brulee is three ingredients to a restaurant-quality dessert in your own kitchen.
- Skip store-bought popcorn for brown bag homemade microwave popcorn!
- Ketchup in a cake is a thing.
- Move over biscoff cookies – this Biscoff cake recipe is insanely good.
- You need no time at all for a Microwave Oreo Mug Cake. Great for college kids!
Edible Toppers for Cakes
Equipment
- Numbers Template
- Popsicle Sticks
Ingredients
- ¼ Cup Melting Chocolate
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Place the template onto a cutting board and top with wax paper.
- Place candy melts into a resealable sandwich bag but do not seal. Heat for 60 seconds at 50% power.
- Knead the bag and flip over. Repeat and knead the bag until the melting chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Seal the bag and snip the tip in the corner.
- Pipe the chocolate onto the wax paper, tracing the template design underneath.
- Keep the chocolate thick. Top with sprinkles while still wet. Let stand to harden.
- Carefully peel the number from the wax paper and flip the number or letter over to the back.
- Reheat the bag of chocolate (30 seconds at 50% power) if no longer melted.
- Pipe chocolate onto the back and gently press the popsicle stick into the chocolate.
- Cover the back of the number with additional chocolate and add sprinkles.
- Let the topper stand to harden.
- Gently press toppers into the top of the cake.
Notes
- I think it’s best if you put the stick on off-center. For example, put it on the side vs. the center of the number, so more of the stick is attached to the number.
- It might be easier to put wax paper on a cutting board and put the cutting board onto a rimmed baking sheet so that the sprinkles stay on the baking sheet and not all over the counter.
- Make sure you keep your chocolate thick and press the sprinkles into the sides as well.
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Sharing of this recipe is encouraged and appreciated. Copying of full recipe to any social media is prohibited.
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