When I first starting baking and decorating cakes I was always amazed at Topsy Turvy Cakes. There was a mystery about them and I could never quite figure out what technique they used to make them stable enough. To tell the truth, one of my worst cake experiences was when I tried to make my niece her first birthday cake and attempted this style of cake for the first time, but unfortunately everything went wrong. I sadly ended up taking the top two tiers off and just presenting the bottom tier…definitely not one of my finer moments in my cake career. But thankfully those days are in the past and now the fears and anxiety of making topsy turvy cakes is over. Since I had always found myself scouring the internet to get helpful hints about these styles of cakes and never found a tutorial that I loved I thought I would post one for all of you, so that you didn’t have to go through the same trouble I did. I hope that you find this tutorial helpful and get the courage up to try one of these cakes too!
I don’t remember exactly, but I think my tiers were 5″, 7″, and 9″. Each cake tier has three layers of cake and two layers of filling. This particular cake was coconut buttermilk cake with lemon cream and coconut cream cheese frosting. Once you fill and stack your cake you need to cut the top layer of the cake at an angle and then flip it over to create the sharp curve at the top of the cake. To get those layers to stick together add a little filling and frosting to them to adhere. Always use a serrated knife when cutting your cakes and make sure they are thoroughly chilled too.
Also always make sure and pipe a buttercream dam around the edge of each cake layer when assembling so that the filling doesn’t squish out onto the outside of the cake. This also helps with the stability of the cake. I also trimmed the sides of the cake slightly to help with the topsy turvy look, but make sure and don’t carve away too much at the bottom as it can make the cake not as stable. Once your cake is filled, you can either wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it or you can keep working and frost the entire cake before letting it rest.
Once frosted you need to refrigerate the cake until the frosting is hard. Then take a piece of parchment paper and trace the size of the next tier that while be sitting on top of it. Cut out the circle and place it on the center of the cake it will be sitting on. Then using a serrated knife cute the shape out of the cake below. You need to make sure you cut into the cake so that the area is level and flat. You are basically creating the illusion of the cake sitting at an angle, when in reality it is level.
Then you need to frost the exposed area and cover the cake in fondant.
I also covered the cake board in the same color fondant so that they cake has a finished look to it. Before stacking the cakes make sure and carve and cover all of your cakes in fondant. Then put your dowels (supports) in the cake. Make sure and cut the dowels all the same height so the cake is level. Then add a little buttercream to the base the cake will be sitting on and place the tiers onto each other…adjusting them until you like the position of the cake.
I then used my airbrush machine to color the fondant more of a pink color and added a pearl shimmer to it also. The lighting in the kitchen is horrible so all the colors are a little off than what they really were…basically the cake was a shimmery pink color in really life.
Then I made fondant pearls to go around the cake tiers and sprayed them with silver lust dust spray.
I decorated the sides and top of the cake with fondant cut-outs. I used stamps to get the impressions on them and then sprayed them silver too. For the topper I added fondant to silver wire and bent it to make the design.
I actually ended up adding a couple star cut-outs to the fondant base board of the cake which I think made it look better. I also wrapped the edge of the cake base board in silver ribbon to pull it all together.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful and inspiring! Happy Cake Baking!
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Melody, as always this tutorial is great. Thank you so much for posting it!! Like I said before, you are such an inspiration to me.
Excellent info! Thank you Melody!!!!
Wowzers! This tutorial is awesome. I’m that beginner cake decorator that has been wondering the secret of the topsy turvy cake! I’m so excited! Maybe I’ll attempt this some time soon. Maybe I’ll consider it when it isn’t so late. Great job! Great blog!
wow – this is a fantastic tutorial! Thanks!!
Great step by step! I always wondered how it was done!
You make it look easy but there’s no way I would ever try…not in a million years!
Thanks so much for sharing, I never realised exactly how it was done, very clever. A lot of people seem to really love this look, so I’d really like to try it sometime.
I think that’s my favorite cake that you made(decorated)! It’s fantastic. I love the colors and I’m not a fan of pink. I also like the flavor of the cake itself.
Thank you for the tutorial! I’m still not brave enough but I’ll just swing by here and dream.
~ingrid
Wow! I love the pink colour! The structure of the cake and the silver stars and decorations make it look very futuristic! Well done
Thank you so much for posting this!!!!!! I have wanted to do a topsy cake for SO long, but always fear the disaster that would ensue haha
Melody, thanks God, your are so kind, ready to share your knowledge. This tutorial is really lighting… I saw a video on You tube last days about this kind of cakes. But I appreciate yours, because you always give extra helpful information. Visiting your blog makes me wish to live next door to you….thank you.
thanks for the tutorial, really easy to follow!
Hey! Great job! Thanks for posting. It looks wonderful!!
That’s so nice of you to do such a great tutorial! The cake turned out gorgeous Mel!
I really appreciate that you took the time to do this. Thank you so much.
WOW great post, thanks so much!!
Wow topsy turvy cakes are so clever! Great tutorial
Mel – can you ship to San Francisco:)
–Marc
Very cool cake!!
Thank you for this tutorial! I haven’t gotten to do a topsy turvy yet, but I hope to some day.
Beautiful cake! Thanks for the tutorial, it is very well done. Much appreciated.
Thank you for a well done tutorial! And gorgeous cake as usual.
what a great tutorial melody. so useful. lovely cake too!
The most excellent tutorial. Thank you very much for your patience and photos. It will help if I ever get around to making one of these.
you did an awesome job on the topsy turvy!!
very nice tutorial…thanks for sharing!!
You did a fab job, fantastic. Is this for a wedding? I love that you show us readers step by step… Can’t wait to see more!
I always wondered how they did that.
All I can say is that you must have the patience of a million saints, it’s brilliant!
This looks awesome! Incredibly involved, but totally awesome and probably worth it!
I love it! You are so talented! Hope you are doing well!
Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to share!
This is fabulous! I might actually try to do this now!! Thanks =)
what a great tutorial! i love it and i think this will motivate me to make my first topsy turvy cake. thanks! and your cake is beautiful!
Wow, I had no idea how involved these types of cakes are! I have yet to try one, and your tutorial makes me want to take a stab at it. I highly doubt it will come out as beautiful as yours! Thank you so much for sharing in your wealth of knowledge… you know how meaningful that is! BTW, I am always SO impressed by your super cute and stylish backgrounds. Do you use paper, fabric, etc.? Inquiring minds want to know….
Thanks for the info! I’m actually in Whittier- not too far from you. Thank you SO much for your tips. I love learning things from people who have been properly trained! I just kind of go of a whim, so it’s helpful to know how to do things the “right” way. You are such an inspiration!
P.S.- Do you have a shop? I would love to visit some time!
Hi Melody!
It was so great meeting you too! You work is gorgeous and i can’t wait to host an event at my home & have some of your goodies!
how much fun is your airbrush machine?????
Melody, thanks for the excellent tutorial.. now looking at the pictures, the process doesn’t really look that daunting.. will try this someday, but first I need to bake lots of cakes for this. Anyway, keep up the good work and good luck with your business.
Min
Malaysia.
Maybe I’ll get the guts to do one of these one day! I’m curious how you gor the fondant on that odd shape with the hole in it?!
I love the pearls–you did a great job.
i would be afraid to ever attempt this cake. but as always, it’s beautiful!! i love that spray metallic stuff…very cool.
Japan Gril – This was actually for a birthday party for a lady turning 30!
Aimee – You have to be very CAREFUL!
For how many people is that cake
This cake served around 50 people!
Wow, you make this seem to be easy. I need to make one for my daughters sweet 16. I have never done one like this and never have used fondant. How do you color it. She wants black, purple and silver. Do you have any suggestions for me? It was a great tutorial by the way.
Thank you for sharing , I am sure a lot of cake decorators will benefit for this tutorial, we all benefit from it.
Thanks again.
You have already heard this, but thank you for you wonderful tutorial. I just did my first attempt to make a TT cake for my daughters B’day this past weekend. Turned out OK. Sagged a little. Wished I had found your web page sooner.
Thanks,
Kim
maravilhoso, um dia farei um assim
Thank you, thank you for this tutorial, i was looking for this, did´nt now how to do it!/
Cutecake from Sweden
You have helped me soooo much. I am a one woman shop and can’t get out for classes that I need. Thank you Thank you. Bea
I Love It!
Great tutorial…. btw I love you store your gel colors, dusts ect in the back on the white shelf.