LOL ok Ive seen this so many times and it looks awesome.

Now I need to do a beach/seashell themed cake with stars and a shuttle flying off the top of it using that technique with the wires. My customer is having a party at the beach and later that night the shuttle is supposed to go off. Cool beans.

So, how do I do this technique? Do I need a certain kind of wire? Does the wire go directly into the cake? Does it need to be anchored in there somehow so it doesnt rip the cake with the weight of the ornament on the end? Any advice on how to make a shuttle or stars out of fondant would be great too.

Im so excited about this cake! Its the first order Ive ever had for a cake that wasnt "white with roses" or something simple like that. Woohoo!

Oh and I had another question that is kind of off this topic but Ill try to ask it here anyways,


I need to refriderate this cake and Im aware of the condensation that will appear on the fondant icing, but if this cake has gumpaste details, will they get ruined in the fridge, for example, wilt or melt or something weird like that?

I don't have an answer for you but here is a bump because I would love to know the answers as well. Good Luck, sounds like a very fun cake to make. Please post pictures when you get it done.

Hi there! I love this effect! You need to use something like florist wire. I use gauge 18 usually. You do need to use a florist pick which is pushed into the top of the cake (best if you're doing a fountain type thing).

If you're scattering the wires all over the cake, use little straws to put into the cake.

There's a really good thread on here about food safety etc regarding wires.

I don't put the topper in the fridge usually- i put the paste shapes on the wires to dry then assemble it on site- The fountain style ones bash into each other when you move them!! (I broke one spectacularly doing this!)
Just roll the icing or paste really thin to cut the shapes. Also some genius on here suggested using a lighter to heat the tip of the wire before sliding the shape on. It melts the icing inside to make it stick. (wire gets blooming hot though)

Hope that helps!

I use the florist wire in the craft store. But if you are making the shuttle out of chocolate and it is of any size it might get pretty heavy, so you might want to use a lillipop stick . When i use wire i get a thick enough gauge to that it holds up my figure but still has a little sway to it. mkae a tine loop at the end that is going to go into your figure , or cut out or whatever, so that it can hang on to the wire. you can glue them on with melted chocolate afterward as well. When I insert them into the cake I cut down coffee creamers for thinner wires or straws for lillipop sticks or groups of thin wires. I put them in the cake first pipe in a little melted chocolate then insert the wires. The chocoate fills in the rest of the space inside the straw so the wires aren't moving around. hope this helps.

Great tips! Thanks!!! I am so excited about this! lol. I think Im going to start making some of it tonight. Ive got to look up and see what the shuttle is supposed to look like! Fun stuff.

I was thinking of molding the shuttle out of gumpaste. It probably will be pretty heavy so that straw idea is really a great idea. Only thing is Im afraid once I push something that big into the fondant its going to leave a big hole that will be hard to hide. Maybe those tiny coffee straws would be the best to use.

Ok I thought of something else. How can I paint the black details on the shuttle so that it doesnt bleed into the white?

Wire in the jewelery dept comes on a spool works well too! I find it Hobby Lobby. I am going to try the warming the wire...just another way in the kitchen to burn myself!

Happy Caking!

My husband has some aluminum wire that came from a hardware store. Do you think that is safe to use?

hi gia,

I find that when i tint my buttercream black it fades into whatever icing it touches (and tastes bitter b/c i have to use so much coloring). But when I use Brill's black icing (already tinted) it doesn't bleed at all. I don't paint with it but i use tiny tips for the detail work!

Maybe I am just missing something but if the shuttle is going to be hovering over the cake, shouldn't it be as lightweight as possible? I would think carving a basic shape out of stryofoam and covering that with the gumpaste/fondant mix would be the best. That way you can give your shuttle some height over the cake.

Okay my imagination got ahold of this one. wouldn't it be fun if the cake was kinda dome shaped to look like the horizon. That way the shuttle could be braced against the left side a bit, yet still hovering. Then on the other "side" of the cake have a beach scene. Your message could be in the middle along with maybe a few stars on wires. lol.... Told you my imagination got this one! LOL

Any way you do it, have fun!! That's what cake is allllll about.

Here's another idea for your shuttle - you could make it 2-D rather than 3-D so it's more like a silhouette. That would eliminate the weight and also make it seem like you are looking at it way up in the sky - no need for black details on white that way.

But I have found that using a black food marker works well on gum paste - in case you decide to go that way.

Good luck on your creation!

Ok guys I bought some florist wire and made the pieces. I looked at some coffee straws and I am really worried that it will make holes that are too large and noticable in the fondant. Is this kind of wire ok to put directly into the cake?

Hey there,
Are you doing the first or second picture?
If doing the second which is the most obvious to me, I would colour the gumpaste for the big black thingy (he he) in the middle first so as not to have any dramas with it running (I mean don't paint that part after you have made it, colour the gumpaste before you mould it). Then once you have made the rest of it (the white part) I would then do the details with edible ink pens.
If it's only going to be 2 inches you're really not going to have major dramas with weight. I was thinking when I thought that it was going to be really big that you could maybe suspend it from the ceiling. I am also thinking that you could put flames on the bottom and that could be the support for it, maybe have wires coming out of the flames. I have never seen this effect on a cake and I'm only new to all this so don't take my word for it. Just thought a few ideas might be helpful.

Ke?? What's going on here? Your last pictures did not load at all when I was reading this. But anyhows...You did great!!

lol I know Im really having issues with this site lately. Or maybe its my computer, I dont know. I didnt think they loaded so I tried to upload them again so now it shows twice on my post. Oh well.

Thanks for the compliment! I love how the shuttle turned out. I think its cute.

Please don't insert them directly into the cake, use the straws.
Is it that you will see the end of the straw that has you worried? Just sift some of your 'sand' over the straw after inserting the wires. That will cover the area.
As far as holes in the cake itself, they're no larger than the dowels in the lower tier.

I wasnt planning on using sand, I dont think. You know what, maybe Ill just have to arrange some shells around the bottom of the wires to hide it. I guess I dont have a lot of choice here. Thank you.