How to make a Super Mario cake or any other standing figure
Hi guys!
This is my first tutorial so excuse me if things might sound a little confusing 
I have always wanted to make this kind of cakes and I decided to make one for the Ventura County Fair 2012 competition.
I am attaching some pictures so it would be easier to understand what excatly I was doing.
If you have any question, please don’t hesitate and ask me. I’m not an expert but I am learning from every cake I make
Much love,
Tali
List of Materials
- PVC
- RKT
- Fondant
- Buttercream
- Cake board
I drew a sketch of Super Mario including all the PVC connectors such as 45º, 90º, cross and a T. I wanted it to be pretty tall. If you can see, sizes were 10” for the head, 10” for the torso, and 10” for the legs. Later I realized that it didn’t make so much sense because this is a video game character and usually the head is bigger so I made the legs and hands shorter.
I made the head out of a cake dummy, drew Mario’s face on top and carved the shape of his head. The Eyes, nose, lips etc just gave me an idea of how it going to look like.
Here is Mario covered with fondant, I couldn’t stop smiling because he looked so funny to me LOL
Doesn’t it look hilarious??? I made Mario’s skelaton using PVC and connectors for his “joints” (you can find it in any hardware store. I also got 2 flanges to have him stand and drilled it to a pre-cut 2′x2′ square wood base, and trust me – this metal flanges made it SO secure! Something I have learned for my next cake: Drill the flanges UNDER the base, not on top like I did because it was hard to cover it and it makes it look unprofessional.
I covered Mario’s body with RKT. IMPORTANT NOTE: I didn’t take a picture of the rectangle wood I put under his torso – this is VERY IMPORTANT because it will avoid accidants. I drilled into the PVC and placed a rectangle piece of wood between his torso and hips for support.
I covered Mario’s feet with buttercream and than brown fondant, made a hole in the styrofoam head and connected it to the PVC.
I covered his legs with blue pants.BTW, here I learned from one of my mistakes. The fondant was too thin and that is why it’s easy to see bumps of the RKT. When you roll the fondant the make sure your fondant is thick enough. If it is not, you can always add one more layer of fondant.
I made the top part of the mushroom out of a giant half cake pop. What I did was just placing it in a bowl with the shape I was looking for, and turned it up-side-down on a round cake board. Than I covered with fondant and air-brushed it.The bottom part of the mushroom is a styrofoam covered with skin tone fondant.
Mario and I. I was so excited – first competition and first edible figure.It felt great! Results will be ready only tomorrow. I can’t wait!
Thank you for the time you've invested to show us how its done, and many thanks for sharing!!! :D
Thanks so so much sharing.
Good luck on your contest. Thanks for sharing :)
That's a lot for sharing. But I was just wondering how exactly you drilled the wooden rectangle between the torso and hips so that it surrounded the PVC.
Please excuse my stupid question..... But where's the cake?
He looks great! Good luck and thank you for sharing your experience with everyone! We all learn from each other!
Ooooh. He is SO cute! Thanks much for the tutorial :-) Can't wait to hear how you fare at the fair!
WOW! awesome info THANK YOU
It's awesome, but what part of him (Mario) is cake? Was the mushroom the only cake ?
Thank you guys! @MKaberle, the cake is the top of the mushroom. This contest was only for the decorated part. This tutorial was more about how to BUILD A PVC structure than making the actual cake... @Cakeastic, I really wish I took a picture of the wooden rectangle :( I'm sorry it is confusing. I drilled a long screw from his back to his front in order to support the wooden rectangle and than placed it on top of the screw, I hope it helps :)
You did an awesome job for your first attempt. Thanks so much for sharing!!
what is....what looks like a box behind me...and forgive me but can you explain again the box (for his torso)
thanks
Good luck, he's really remarkable. I can see how much work went into it. I can't call this a cake though, just like I can't call fondant "icing". You did a wonderful job on making the structure though.
box behind HIM (not me....duh sorry)
OMG!! You did a GREAT job!!!!! And thanks so much for your drawing and pics of the PVC. I'm pretty mechanically-inclined, but always need pics, so this really helps me understand and "put 2 and 2 toether" :-) !! Great, great job!
WOW! you are so kind thank you so much for sharing this with us, I really like the idea of making the head of a cake dummy
To help cover the RKT paint melted chocolate on the structure. I have always wanted to tackle a such as this- god job!
Thank you, Tali5484 - very informative! But I am wondering where the cake part comes in? Thanks, Mary1074, for the RKT tip. Good advice!
CammyCakes, Your Mario/RKT cake is fantastic, I love the way you taggle that , I give it to you, congradulations and I sincerely hope you win your contest.. Keep it up, you doing a great job. :)
I have also been wondering how to use pvc in structures. This is very helpful! Thank you. I am still a little confused about the wood in the torso, but usually I can figure it out as I go. Thanks again!!
I have said I would never do a standing cake like this. But thanks to you breaking down the step I think I will. Thank you so much.
Maybe after you win the contest and the RKT are gone, you could take a picture of the board! Good luck I think you'll win!
Thanks for sharing x
Thanks for sharing x good luck in the contest
That is wonderful, but I don't know how that is considered a cake. The best of luck to you!
What a wonderful cake!! I love his face and you did a great job! Win or not, you should be extremely proud of yourself because for a first try, this is amazing.
I think "mom-of-four" had a good idea in maybe you taking a picture of the frame after the RKT is removed. I'm sure you're going to save the frame - right?
Thanks so much for sharing :-)
Great job!
For those wondering why it's called a cake, most cakes in cake decorating competitions are decorated dummies. If the artist wanted to make this as a cake to sell, she would have made the torso and head at least from cake. You could also build 'donuts' of cake for the legs. So, as per most competitions, you can build from non-cake, but the design should be able to be reproduced from cake.
I think this design fulfills those constraints, given the majority of it can be replaced with cake, for an actual edible cake! Of course it's never going to be 100% cake, but then I challenge anyone to make 20 - 30" of standing cake with no skeleton!!
@Evoir - THANK YOU SO MUCH for your comment. I couldn't have said it better. Some people will not focus on the "big picture" (which is the PVC structure).
I should have called it a "Super Mario RKT standing figure", but because it was for a CONTEST (cross your fingers for me), I made it out of RKT and made a huge cake pop for the top of the mushroom.
I put a lot of TIME and EFFORT to build my first standing figure, plus I put a lot of time to make my FIRST tutorial, so please guys, appreciate it.
@cat10068 - Yes, I will NEVER throw the structure away LOL It took me forever :) I will post a picture of the frame as soon as I can.
What a great idea. Thank you for taking time to share your talents with us. I hope you win the competition. Like some of the others have suggested, once the rkt is taken off, please post a picture of the torso section so that we could understand your instructions better. Good luck and God bless
Thank you so much for sharing this. God bless your generosity for doing this. It means soooo much to newbies like me. :)
What a lot of work! Thanks for sharing this. Could anyone tell me what is RKT please, as I don't think it's a term we commonly use here in the UK? Also, if you were going to make it from cake, how would you apply the cake around the armature? Fingers crossed for a good result in the contest.
Wow! Thank you so much for sharing. I recently did my first 3D cake (R2-D2) and can't wait to try other techniques. I can imagine how exciting and fun and difficult this was to do. Good for you! I love the whimsical pose and decorating. Very well done, good luck in the contest!
Catherine, RKT = Rice Krispy Treats (aka cereal treats). Not sure you make them there. You melt butter, then melt in marshmallows, then stir in Rice Krispies/puffed rice cereal. It's the kind of thing moms used to make for after school snacks. They're great for support structures and bases, because they are firm, but pliable, too. I used them as a base for my R2-D2 cake and was able to secure the center dowel in the cereal base.
Wow! I think you did an amazing job and it was so incredible of you to take additional time while preparing for a competion to make this tutuorial! It is natural for people to look for more cake when they have never decorated for a competion and are unaware of what is done. Just entering makes you a winner!!!! Good for you!
OMG! That is amazing!! Thank you so much for the tutorial!!! Best of luck in the competion! Like others have said," just entering makes you a winner"!
Holy Cow I think your tutorial was amazing as was your creation! I would like to know how you got your RKT to stay on the PVC pipe tho...I've tried and it falls off> so if anyone has an idea how to make it stick I would really appreciate it. I also would like to see how you did the board when its free of the RKT, Thank You so much for taking the time to share :)
This is awesome and I hope you won. Since I am new to making cakes and especially sculptured cakes I have to ask what is RKT? I have no clue. Thank you
Becki-sue, when I do RKT items, I use royal icing to make them stick to my structure. :)
Absolutely amazing work! You just inspired me to try a standing LEGO figure for my son's birthday. THANK YOU! I had no clue how to support his body & head until now. Just WOW! Thanks for taking the time & energy to show how you did it.
Thanks for the tutorial! one question, on the picture of the skeleton on the carpet, the streched leg had the metalic bottom part facing out, but on the picture where it is attached to the board, it seems to have an angle or something on that same streched leg. Did you change the part? what did you use instead? Thanks for sharing!
Thank you sooo much for the tutorial!!! But how if the figure would be cake, how to build the structue?
I just want to say, Thank you for sharing, you are very thoughtful, others don't care about helping others and you did. With that said, RKT stands for rice krispy treats, which t think is genious, I am a newbie as well and had no idea how something like this was made and now I know thanks to you. I hope you win, and hope you keep posting more tutorials and are not discouraged by the negative or less than appreciative comments others have posted. Keep it up! Good luck!
Thank You for sharing, Your workmanship is great. Brought laughter to my heart.
I saw this on display at the VC Fair!!! Great job! I love putting a face and name to a cake. I live in Newbury Park and submitted a few baked good. My first time too. So much fun. I'll definitely participate next year.
WOW!!! This is great! You are so talented, creative and gifted. I can't imagine what next you'll come up with. Hope you win!
i must ask....how did you get the PVC pipes to stay in tack?
i tried to make a Soccer CHIO a year ago and the pipes kept coming out of joint so i pitched it and tried another route.
now just to be clear you also blended Royal Icing in the RKT to keep them from falling apart?
again i had tried candy melts (melted down) and covered my RKT in chocolate but again it kept melting off . ...........made it was a mess!!
i really would like to try it again.
could i trouble you for these details?
thank you for sharing, many cake decorators charge thousands of dollars just for show how to make an structure like this. God is going to bless you for share, Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A huge THANK YOU!
giant mario cake