I am making a 4 tier cake for my cousins wedding and she picked a very tall and heavy cake top. It is a "Willow Tree" figure "Our Gift" from Hallmark. Well it is not a cake topper. It is made of resin, 8.5 inches tall and weights 2 lbs!!! (sorry it wont let me post a link?) Is there something I can do to keep this thing on top the cake?? I don't think I can just sit it up there with a dot of icing.

You'll want to support it just like it was another tier of cake. A cakeboard or plate underneath of it (that it's actually sitting on) and dowels underneath of that in the top cake.

ditto. You can skip the cardboard/plate if you want to (statue is firm, unlike more cake) but definitely dowel and then icing to hold it.

I don't know if your cake top decorations will allow for this, but once when I had a heavy glass topper, I put supports (dowels) under a cakeboard cut to the size of the square topper, then I put lollipop sticks (4 of them) on an angle to support the corners and piped roses on top of them. I was NOT expecting their topper (a personalized etched piece of glass) to be so heavy, so it was a last minute effort but it worked. I instructed them of the supports in the cake and warned them NOT to move the cake around once the topper was put in place (at their party). They put it in place (between the support sticks) and took their pics, them removed it when they were ready to cut. A last minute fix, but it worked.

kbarton on wilton forums did a cake with that exact toper http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=140600&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=
if you have a account you can pm her and ask

I'm doing the pregnant one of these for a baby shower this coming Sunday, I'm doing the same thing dowel it and i take and cut a piece of cardboard to fit under the statue then attach with icing when I stand it up at the venue. As long as it's doweled no problem I've done many a heavy wedding cake toppers. Good luck!!!!!

Me too debster. I once did a b-day cake with a ceramic piggy bank on top. Just support it the same way you would support another tier of cake and you can put a brick up there if you want to.

thanks everyone! I am just worried that the base is sooo tiny and the figure is so tall that it will tip. the one that kbarton did is the actual figure that is a cake topper. it is much smaller and has a large base. that was the one she was suppose to get, instead this is just a decoration that she deciced will top the cake.

I understand the tall high center of gravity thing at work here. I would make the topper and teh support dowels one unit. I would use double sided rug tape to attach the topper to a plastic round. Then I would glue the plastic supports to it before inserting the whole thing in the top tier.

You could also use the sps system and treat the topper as the top tier, still using the tape to attach the topper. We have two of those figurines with the heads glued back on. They do like to tip.

I had that cake topper and learned the hard way, too. that thing isn't designed to sit on a flat table, let alone on a cake!

What I did was cut a circle from a clear plastic plate (not easy). Dowels in the top tier; covered dowel holes with icing; plastic plate circle on dowels; topper on plate. However ..... we pretty much set the figure on the table in front of the cake until it was time for pictures, then put it on the cake just long enough for the photo op, then removed it.

There is another version that has a wide base. My nephew used it for his cake. http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1230027

But yeah .... this tall one is not good for a cake. I used to keep a photo of it in the shop to show brides "Dont' get this one!"

to top it off I am in the wedding so I have to set the cake up at 8am and I will not see it again until 6pm. after 300 other ppl already have! sigh...I'm hoping she will let me decorate the top tier so I can hide a clear plate up there that thing is so tall I may have to glue it to one. Oh and did I mention that she still hasn't piicked out a cake!!! all i know is 4 tiers

I would DEFINITELY NOT set that topper on the cake for almost 12 hours! no way!!!