hi, I am new on here and pretty new to cake decorating. I have been asked to make a mickey club house cake for a first birthday by a friend. I am pretty confident about most things with it but the thing I am not sure about is on the top she wants her sons name in individual letters on stars stuck individually on the cake. The photo she showed me has had it done with what looks like cake pop sticks. What I am worried about is that because his name is 6 letters long the sticks will damage and tear the cake, also I dont really like the look of them. I know I cant stick wires directly into cake, would appreciate any help or ideas on this. Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help

When I use wires I always first stick them into those thin coffee stirrer straws. You will need to glue them in with a little royal icing or melted chocolate so they don't swing around.

I've used heavier gauge fabric coated wires for things like this and then I dip the ends of the wires in melted chocolate to cover them so that they are safe to stick into the cake. If the wires you use don't have any coating on them you could always wrap the end in floral tape first so that chocolate better sticks to it.

Another thing I did once was make a topper out of a half sphere of styrofoam (I bought it at Michaels arts & crafts), and stuck the lollypop sticks into it. They stick much better into foam then cake. You could cover the styrofoam in fondant and make it look almost like Mickey/Mini mouse.

AThanks for some really good ideas. Will try a few to see which works best