Ever since I saw this cake costume last year, I’ve been dreaming about making my own version for Halloween. Quite frankly, I just thought it would be fun to decorate a giant cake with spackle. Turns out this homemade cake costume was a LOT of work, but it was just as fun as I thought it would be and turned out looking SO CUTE!
Here’s every detail about how to make it, including the things that I would have done differently so if you do make it, you’ll do an even better job. I did find a lot of helpful guidance from this similar blog tutorial, and she even makes a matching hat and shoes, so that one is worth a look too. KEEP IN MIND that if you do want to make this costume, it will take you about a week with drying time, so don’t wait until the last minute.
Cake Costume Video Tutorial
Before you read all about how to make this costume, here’s a video that shows the whole process:
If you love fun tutorial videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel! I’ve got a growing collection of recipes, cake decorating tutorials, and Cake Basics over there. Hit the subscribe button on my page so you never miss a new video.
Cake Costume Supplies
- Foam Board. You’ll know exactly what sizes you’ll need after making the plan in Step 1, but I used two pieces of 15”x20”, three pieces of 18”x24”, and two pieces of 20”x30”.
- Hot glue gun with hot glue sticks
- X-Acto knife
- Cardboard cutter (optional, but helpful)
- Pen or pencil attached to a string (for drawing a circle)
- Measuring tape and rulers
- Book binding tape
- Lightweight spackle. I used 2 gallons + 1 quart for the design pictured.
- Rit dye or acrylic paint (for dying the spackle)
- Icing spatula
- Icing smoother
- Thick white yarn
- Large piping bags
- Piping tips. I used Wilton Tip 6B and Tip 4B
- Nylon webbing (or any kind of sturdy straps)
Step 1: Plan it Out
Draw out the cake on a piece of paper and then use measuring tape to figure out how wide the opening needs to be. You’ll need to comfortably fit it over your hips, waist, and chest, and I want to emphasize the word comfortably because if I would do this over again, I would have made the opening about an inch bigger. I could technically fit, but I had to wiggle a bit and risk breaking the piping around the top. So measure yourself for the opening but add an inch for wiggle room.
In case you need a math refresher (like I did!), after you figure out the diameter of each cake tier, you can calculate the circumference by using the formula: Circumference = 3.14 x the diameter of your cake.
Step 2: Cut Out the Cake Frame Pieces
Now that you know the dimensions of your cake, you’ll cut them out of the foam board. I started with the circular pieces that I used for the top of each tier. To create a perfectly round circle, I marked out the diameter with a ruler, then attached a pen to a piece of string, wrapped it around a nail, and inserted the nail into the center. Then, I held the nail as sturdy as I could while I carefully drew the circle.
I figured that I wanted about 1.5 inches on top of each tier, so I drew another circle 1.5 inches out from the first circle. Then, I cut the piece out using a cardboard cutter. I initially started cutting with an X-acto knife, but the cardboard cutter was much quicker and easier to work with.
Repeat this process with the second tier’s diameter. The smallest one is the opening that you’ll have to step into to put the costume on, so now is a good time to double check that you can step into it and pull it up past your hips and waist, all the way to your chest.
Now, measure out the height of each tier on additional pieces of foam board and cut out the strips until you have the full circumference measurement of each tier (so you have enough to wrap around). Then, using a ruler and an X-acto knife, score each piece of foam board every ¼ inch or so. This means you’ll make slices that don’t go all the way through the board.
Once you have those straight pieces scored, you’ll be able to bend and wrap them to form cylindrical shapes for each cake tier.
Step 3: Build the Cake Frame
Now that you have all the pieces for the frame, glue them together using the hot glue gun. I started with the smaller tier and glued the edges of the smaller circular piece, then wrapped the corresponding piece of foam board around and held it until it stuck. Seal any seams with book binding tape for extra structure.
Repeat the process with the second tier. Then, glue those two tiers together with the hot glue gun. Now you have a frame!
Step 4: Frost the Cake Costume
Before frosting the cake, I tinted one gallon of the lightweight spackle by pouring in some Rit Dye. This worked amazingly.
Then, I used my cake decorating tools to frost the cake. I applied the pink spackle with the angled spatula and then used an icing smoother to smooth it out. It wasn’t perfectly smooth in the end, but close enough. If you need a good tutorial on making a smooth finish on a real cake, this tutorial is really helpful for that and for frosting this fake cake.
After frosting the cake, allow it to dry for 24-48 hours before moving on to decorating.
Step 5: Decorate the Cake Costume
Once the cake costume is totally dry to the touch, decorate it any way you’d like! I measured out some sections on my cake for my design before decorating, and just kindof eyeballed things with a straight edge. In hindsight, I would have used a pencil instead of a kid’s marker because some of the decorations had to be shifted slightly as I decorated.
After marking out sections, I glued on some pieces of yarn to make them look like swags and this method ended up being a lot more fail proof than piping the swags on.
Now for the piping. I tinted some of the spackle with a little bit of red acrylic paint to create a darker pink, then added it to a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 6B and piped shell borders. You’ll find that the spackle is really thick, almost too thick to pipe. So to combat this issue I added a little water (1-2 teaspoons at a time) until it was a nice pipe-able consistency. I did add too much water at one point and wasn’t able to rescue the spackle, so really be careful!
Next, I added some white spackle into a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 4B and piped more shell borders next to the pink ones. I also used this to pipe some stars in between the yarn swags.
Finally, I piped a single shell where each yarn swag connected. I was so giddy when I saw it all finished!
You’ll want to let these decorations dry for at least 72 hours, up to a week if you have the time. They may feel dry to the touch but won’t be fully dry for about a week.
Step 6: Attach the Straps + Wear !
When it came time to try on the costume, I attached some nylon webbing to the inside lip of the top of the cake costume with hot glue, then reinforced it with more book binding tape. I was skeptical that this would hold but it really did work!
And I was even more giddy once I tried on the whole outfit! I paired the cake costume with a ruffled top and sparkly jelly sandals (both purchased at a vintage store long ago), these sparkly tights, and a headband that I piped with more spackle. Soooo fun!
If you’re looking to make your own cake costume, I hope you find this tutorial so helpful. I absolutely loved the process of making this cake and cannot wait to wear it on Halloween! Let me know if you make a cake costume and be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram so I can see a pic!
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