Questions about making cake toppers

[BearFrills]

We're getting DD christened later in the year and when looking at quotes for a cake some of the prices are astounding - £75 for a plain sponge covered in white icing with pink lettering!?

So our new plan is to do what we always do, buy an Asda photocake and decorate it ourselves :o

I fancy making a simple model of DD, nothing too artistic but recognisable as her, along with models of things she likes - her hats and suitcase, her tea set, her bear, etc. We'll then decorate the cake with them.

Is it hard to make these sort of cake toppers? What's best to use to make them? Some sites I've looked at say claydough, others say sugarpaste. Or is there anywhere online that does custom models?

I did this for DD2s 5th birthday recently...I had some great advice on here and the topper worked out brilliantly. I used sugarpaste...ready coloured and I made a fairy castle with flowers twining up the windows and around the door.

I didn't find it hard at all...I had a good tip on here regarding stabilizing the cake...sponge does not hold heavy sugarpaste models well and you need to support the model...what you do is use straws. Poke them into the cake where you want the model to sit, and then snip them off at cake level so they do not show...I used about 6 as support for a castle which was about 6 inches long by 8 high. I was also advised to use neat vodka to stick details like the door on...but I just used water.

I also got some fine edible glitter to sprinkle...looked fab!

YouTube has helped me enormously with cake decorating. You can find how to videos on everything. I also look up polymer clay, you can use the same techniques.I decorate cupcakes and mainly use sugar paste because it's cheaper(£2.50 ish a block). The professionals use flower paste, but this works out quite pricey if you want to use lots of colours (£4.50 ish for half as much)