DIY Gumpaste Letter Cupcake Toppers

The other day I got a request to make a customized letter topper for a cupcake in one of my orders. I’ll admit, I’d actually never made a monogram cupcake topper before but I’m always up for a challenge (a great and terrible quality to have, depending on the situation). Fortunately, this ended up being an incredibly easy DIY and totally customizable for whatever vibe you’re going for, from the font to the finish!

You Will Need:

• Gumpaste (I use this. Most craft stores with a cake decorating aisle will have it.)
• Small rolling pin and smooth surface to roll gumpaste out
• Crisco
• Printed letter templates
• Exacto knife
• Wax paper
• Flat toothpicks or floral wire
• Finishing touches like sprinkles, edible glitter, Edible Art Paint, etc (optional)

Step 1: Print Out A Letter Template

In order to get the look you really want, spend some time looking through different fonts on your computer. I chose a few different fonts for this tutorial just to show you that anything is possible with a little gumpaste and an exacto knife.

Print the letter(s) out onto paper once you’ve got a font you like and it’s sized perfectly, then carefully cut the letter out to use as a template.

Step 2: Make The Gumpaste Monogram

Roll out the gumpaste to the thickness of about ⅛ of an inch using a little crisco to keep it from sticking to your surface. Place your template over the top of the gumpaste and carefully cut around it with an exacto knife.

Stick toothpicks or floral wire into the bottom of the monogram and let it dry for about 15 minutes before carefully transferring it to a piece of wax paper to continue drying. The monogram should be completely dry in 24-48 hours. Flip it over halfway through the drying process so that both sides get equal drying time.

Step 3: Customize The Finish

The monograms look great in plain white, or you can color the gumpaste with food color gels before rolling it out in step 2. I’ve also found some other awesome ways to customize the finish after the drying process though:

Sprinkled Monogram Topper

Because what’s more celebratory than sprinkles?

For this cupcake topper, I mixed water and gumpaste together to make a “glue” (1 Tbsp water + a small ¼ inch piece of gumpaste. Let rest for 30 minutes until gumpaste is dissolved and you have yourself a glue!), brushed it over the monogram, and stuck sprinkles all over it.

Metallic Monogram Topper

For the metallic gold look, I used Edible Art Paint in Glamorous Gold. They make a ton of different colors, both metallic and non, and I love this stuff so much for painting fondant, gumpaste, and even buttercream!

After the gumpaste monogram was completely dry, I used a small paintbrush to paint a few coats of this Edible Art Paint and get the metallic gold look.

Glitter Monogram Topper

To get this glitter finish, I brushed on some of my gumpaste “glue,” then pressed edible silver glitter over the surface of the monogram.

The best thing about these gumpaste letters is they dry super hard in a short amount of time, so you don’t have to worry about them falling apart on you. You could use this technique to spell out an entire word for a cake topper, or keep it simple with one letter. It’s a really quick and easy way to customize a cake or cupcakes without having to scour the internet for the perfect topper!