I'm making my mom a birthday cake for her 80th birthday. I want to put the numbers "80" for the cake topper. Any suggestions on what the best way would be to make these? I want them to stick out of the top of the take and have an idea how to do that but I'm worried about how to get the fondant to dry hard enough so they will stand up straight without falling over. Cookie cutters? molds? I only have experience with marshmallow fondant but I'm wondering if this will harden good enough. Any suggestions????

add gumpaste to your fondant, otherwise they will not be stiff enough

You can add gum-tex or tylose powder to your MMF for more stability. Another idea is to simply make the numbers well in advance and give them time to dry. You can use molds, cookie cutters or free hand the numbers however you want. Insert toothpicks into your numbers while soft, and when dry, they will stand up nicely on top of your cake.

Good Luck,
Kat

I usually freehand my numbers. and add a thin skewer at the bottom and leave to dry. i like enough skewer to go down in the cake good, so it won,t fall over. yes, add tylose or gumtex to your mmf.

I did the same thing for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary cake. You can see it in my photos. I made by first creating a Word document and found the font I liked and made it REALLY large and printed it out. I then rolled out my gumpaste to about 1/4" thick and placed the page over the fondant and lightly traced the pattern on the fondant, removed the page and cut out the numbers using a sharp exacto knife. Once they were cut out I rounded the edges a little just by pressing lightly with my finger and then placed them on a tray so that they could dry flat. I then attached a couple of short dowels at the bottom using gumpaste. Hope this helps. : )

Rysmom05, this tutorial is not in English, but the pictures are clear enough. And if you click on them, they will enlarge.

I think they will be very secure if you make them like this. Plus it's got a cover on the back. Nobody sees anything.

But add some tylose to your fondant, too.

http://tortentante.blogspot.com/2010/09/buchstaben-und-zahlen-beine-machen.html

Thanks!