I will be doing a 10" square cake for a maths teacher thats retireing. I prepared the fondant / gumpaste letters last night but I can just about squueze the word 'Retirement' in (the customer also wants the inverted comas). The R and the last letter T just come off the tin (which I used as a guide). The comas I had to place on top instead of on the side. The only cutters I have is the funky letters (which I used) and the tubby alphabet. Can the tubby alphabet cutters be used on other cakes instead of childrens cakes? Would it look strange if I uses them? I am also useless at piping so that is out of the question and I don't want to spend more money buying different cutters. Please help..

Not familiar with the 'tubby' alphabet.

Could you put the letters around the board rather than on the cake perhaps?

Or instead of using cut-outs, do you have any alphabet stamps (dedicated to caking, ie. not used with ink) in a smaller font that you could use to emboss the lettering?

I won't be able to put round the board as its only 12" which is not big enough. The stamps are a good idea but I think its too short notice to purchase them, I'll definitely think of that in the future though. The fondanted cake will be slightly larger than the tin due to the fondant and hopefully allow a tiny bit more space. I don't know what else I could do.

You can curve the letters around, following the top edge of the cake. You dont' have to apply them in a straight line.

Thanks Leah but I am not sure if there will be enough room, I'll try. At the top I will place a gumpaste abacus which goes to about half of the cake. The other half is writing. It will say:-
Happy
'Retirement'
Diane!

If I try and curve the Retirement I am afraid it may not have room for the Diane. Also, won't it look odd with just that word curved and the others striaght?