Topsy Turvy Cake~ Video Tutorial

I love the whimsical look of topsy turvy cakes! With their wonky angles and tapered sides, they have such a fun and festive feel. In this three part video tutorial, I am going to show you how to carve, cover with fondant, and decorate a three tiered topsy turvy cake.

Because of the length of the video, we divided this tutorial into three parts. We hope that you enjoy it!

Materials Used: (This is a comprehensive list for all three Parts of the Tutorial)

In this video, we are using 10"/8"/6" tiers, which are tapered around the sides. The 10" is tapered to an 8" width at the base of the tier. The 8" cake is tapered to a 6" at the base. The 6" (which had actually shrunk to 5.5" once baked) was tapered to 4".

*You must use a dense cake if tapering the sides. My cake was the "Durable Cake" listed in our recipes section. Pound cake would work well also.

White Chocolate Ganache as described in our "Simple Spreadable Ganache" recipe in the recipes section. It's a 3:1 ratio of chocolate to cream. (We used 55 oz or 1559g) which is five 11 oz bags Ghirardelli White Baking Chips to 18 oz (530g) or 2 ¼ c. heavy cream.)

Elizabeth Marek's Fondant (or your preferred brand/recipe) *I added a little tylose powder when it was time to do the bow and numbers. Fondant amounts: (Green 10" tapered bottom tier: 40 oz (1124g), White 8" tapered center tier, 36 oz (1020g), and pink 6" tapered top tier: 24 oz (680 g)

Cardboard Cake Circles (I used 2 for each tier, cut to the size of the cake). Also 5 cake boards stacked for the cake base.

Bubble tea straws or your supports of choice

Sharp knife for carving the cake (I prefer serrated).

Bucket or bowl to elevate the cake (Optional but I find this really helpful) If you buy pre-made fondant, this is often a good sized bucket!

Coloring Gels: I used Americolor Deep Pink & Americolor Electric Green

Parchment Paper- I used when making the templates for our wells

Piping Tips- I used Wilton small round tips for piping paisleys (Tip 2), and tip 12 for the small polka dots on the top tier

FMM Multi-Ribbon Cutter- for my fondant strips on the bow

Royal Icing for piping the decorations

Lollipop Sticks- For the cake topper

Small Paint Brushes--Miscellaneous

Buttercream--We had our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream on hand for "gluing" tiers together, etc.

Candy Melts- We glued our cake to the cake base with candy melts

Cake stand/base- We used a plastic tablecloth to wrap around the cake base (five 12" cake cardboards), and then secured ribbon.

Fondant Smoothing paddles or thick acetate (optional) for smoothing your fondant onto the cake

Miscellaneous: Plastic Wrap, Scissors, Sharp Knifes, rolling pin for fondant, vegetable shortening (optional), sugar glue or piping gel, small paint brushes (optional), offset spatula for frosting/ganaching

A Few Notes:

Just a reminder that you do not have to taper the sides of your cake. I've seen some beautiful topsy turvy cakes where there is no taper at all...just angled tops. This is especially a good idea if you are not working with a very dense cake.

*If you don't taper the sides of your cake, I would make sure that there is at least a 3 inch difference in tier size as you move from tier to tier. For instance, I wouldn't do an 8"/6" non-tapered topsy turvy. I would do 9"/6".

For tapered tiers, it is fine if you begin with a two inch difference between tiers (we used 6/8/10") because by the time that you stack the cake, the bottom of each tier will have been tapered.

**As I mention in the video, make sure that you give your tiers a little wiggle room within their wells. If you don't, and the fit is very snug, they will put too much pressure on the cake surrounding the well and could cause a split. This is why I chill my tiers before assembling...because there is a good chance that you will need to make some adjustments to the well size before the tiers fit perfectly.

PART ONE: Part One of our video tutorial deals with assembling the individual tiers, tapering the sides, ganaching, and the start of covering with fondant.

PART TWO: In this video, I demonstrate making our bow, I finish covering the tiers with fondant, demonstrate how to cut the wells, stack the tiers, and hammer a sharpened dowel through all three tiers.

PART THREE: This video deals with decorating the three tiers-- Paisleys piped in royal icing, attaching the bow to the middle tier, polka dots for the top tier, and a "16" cake topper!

44 Comments

love it! Thanks for doing this cake. Adorable.

I really like the knife you are using. It looks like a Chicago Cutlery. Where can we order one ?

Can you provide the link to the number cutters?

Melissa, would the tapering and settling method work if the cake is already slanted? I have the Fat Daddio's topsy turvy pans, which I use for the top layer, then use two pans of the same diameter to make up the bottom to layers of the cake. Because of that, the sides of my topsy turvy cakes are always straight, but I would love to experiment with creating a tapered design. Thanks!

Hi Melissa,
I have a topsy-turvy cake due next week, so this tutorial is the answer to my prayers! I don't quite understand what ganache is used for...is it necessary for this cake? I will attempt to make, but was just wondering because some people do not like chocolate. Again, please tell me the pros for using ganache. I just don't know anything about it...thanks!

Thanks everyone for your comments!

@Melanie--I have never worked with the Topsy Turvy pans. I wonder if you could taper the bottom two layers as I do in the video...and then just add the slanted top layer? You may be able to still add a little weight to settle the assembled layers...but if not, you could just give it a good press down and let it settle overnight. --

@Terri- I like to work with ganache beneath fondant but buttercream works too! The reason I like to use ganache is because it sets up firmer, making a nice foundation for the fondant and a nice "shell" for the cake. However, you can definitely use buttercream if that is what you prefer!

can you provide the link where I can buy the number cookie cutter

Hi Amy, I thought our came from Sur la Table but I could not find them online. I found these on amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Number-Piece-Cookie-Cutter-Set/dp/B001E2ALSO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1372343345&sr=8-5&keywords=number+cookie+cutters They look like the ones we used and they are 3 inches tall, that is the height of our numbers.

In your opinion, is this cake sturdier if you just opt to angle the tops, or is it more risky to cut the tops at an angle, then flip the other part of the cake over and place back on cake to make a larger slope? I see the latter is what you did, but I was just wondering if there is more of a chance of the cake tumbling over that way....or does it not matter? I think your way looks better, but since this is my first time doing a topsy turvy, I want to be as safe as possible. Please advise. Thanks!

Hi Terri--- I think that either way looks great. If you are worried, just throw out those scraps...you won't miss them & the cake will still be every dramatic.

I did not have concerns about my two bottom tiers... they seemed stable even with that added height of the "scrap layer". However, with the top tier, as you see in the video..I had intended to use that scrap layer at first...but then changed the plan when I realized that it seemed too unstable. I think that it was just too small of a tier (especially at the 4" base) to handle the added height as well as the uneven weight.

As you can see in the cake photo...there really isn't that much difference in appearance between the top tier and the other tiers, even though I didn't use the scrap layer. ;0) -- Good luck!

I'm going to give this a shot! Can it be done with buttercream or does it need to be fondant?

Thanks

Hi Michael, that's great! You can do this with buttercream but when it's time to stack the tiers, you'll want the cakes to be chilled enough so that the buttercream is firm for easy handling.