What the best way to make sure the handle stays on a 3D tea pot cake. I've made one before and the handle would just not stay on, luckily it was only for my mother-in-law and she understood. It was made out of gumpaste with toothpicks but it just fell off because of the weight of it. But I'd like to try again. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

Make your handle days, if not a couple of weeks ahead of time. Make sure it is bone dry, and of course, sans liquid--it's now lighter. Glue it on with RI. There's no reason on earth it shouldn't stay put. Without toothpicks. And actually, you can make it way ahead like I said, and insert toothpicks before you let it dry....extra security I suppose. But stuff like this, that is sticking out from the cake, is always best made way ahead of time.

I've only doen a tea cup so myabe this will help:

I just made sure the handle was really dry before I put it on the side my tea cup cake. I used 50/50 GP and Fondant. Then used thick royal icing to get it to stick, put a cup or a can on either side to hold it in place while it dried, then covered the royal iccing with a piece of fondant rope around it.

here is a picture:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1471524&sub=1471525

HTH! Good Luck!

I don't ever have the luxury of making things weeks in advance so overnite is about as long as anything i make gets to dry!! LOL I would suggest that you use something longer than a toothpick for starters!!! There just isn't enough length in a toothpic to support anything. I use skewers like you would make a kabob on. make sure you angle it down!! anything that is stuck in horizontally will sag!!. also as suggested earlier. I use royal as "glue"
hope that helps
Mike

If I really want the security of making sure something 'sticks', I add pasta rather than toothpicks, etc. since it is edible.

Here's and example of my teapot handle......
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1220410.html

Happy Ho-Ho-Holidays!
~ Jaime

for the two that I did, I used wooden skewers (sold on the aisle where they have the toothpics, used for shish kabob) and did what Mike did ..put dabs of RI and angled it down.

I have made MANY teapots and I have only used toothpicks for mine. I use gumpaste and make them a couple of days ahead of time. Not a problem. As PP said, angle them down, and it is very important to make sure that they are going into the CAKE and not the filling. A lot of the time folks make the handles and spouts waaay too big - which is another reason why they won't hold.

Here are two I have pics of:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1357250

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=2539

when i make a tea pot.. i use the small skewers.. place them in the spout and handle to dry in them... when all is dry.. insert into cake at an angle. using r/i for glue... or if the tea pot is b/c .i use b/c for the glue.. never failed me..