PIXELATED PERFECTION CELEBRATION CAKE

If you geek over video games, sci-fi, or your favorite comic book characters, the Geeked Out cake trend is for you. This square cake with its pixelated side pattern and cake topper is easy enough for beginners to make, using Decorator Preferred White Fondant and Ready-to-Use Gum Paste tinted to a galactic vibrant color palette.

Amount12

Ingredients & Tools
Instructions

Instructions

Click to mark complete

Two days in advance, prepare cake slice pattern. Print out pattern. Glue patterns 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 to cardstock; cut out cardstock pieces.
Tint fondant and gum paste. Tint 1 oz. fondant each Lemon Yellow, orange, Royal Blue, green, purple, Teal, Rose and Ivory. Combine Orange icing color and Red-Red icing color for orange shade; Leaf Green icing color and Yellow icing color for green shade; Violet icing color and Rose icing color for purple shown. Reserve remaining 1 oz. fondant white. Tint gum paste black.
Also two days in advance, make cake topper pieces and cake fondant pieces.
Roll gum paste and all fondant to 1/16 in. thick. Place patterns onto rolled out gum paste and fondant and cut with craft knife. Cut out pieces as follows:
- Black gum paste cake base/outline (pattern 1).
- Ivory fondant Cake Layers (pattern 2)
- White fondant Cake Icing (pattern 3)
- Rose fondant Candle Base and Candle (patterns 4 and 5)
- Orange fondant Candle Flame (pattern 7)
- Yellow fondant Candle Inside Flame (pattern 8)
- Purple fondant Candle Sprinkles (pattern 6)
- Assorted fondant colors Cake Sprinkles, two ¼-in. squares of each color, except black and ivory
- One day in advance assemble topper.
  Brush off cornstarch from dried fondant and gum paste pieces. Use a damp brush to attach pieces together as follows, using picture as a guide:
  - Attach cake icing to cake base
  - Attach cake layers.
  - Attach candle base at top of cake icing.
  - Attach candle to cake base and cake icing, making sure top edges are even.
  - Attach flame, leaving about 3/16 in. between candle and flame.
  - Attach inside flame.
  - Randomly attach cake sprinkles on top of cake icing piece.
  - Attach candle sprinkles.
  - Attach lollipop stick. Turn topper over; attach lollipop stick, leaving 2 in. of stick exposed. Roll out black gum paste 1/16 in. thick. Cut a 3/8 in. x 2 in. x 1/16 in. strip and attach over lollipop stick with a damp brush. Let dry overnight.
  - One day in advance make layered cake. Bake and cool three 2 in. cake layers. Level, fill, and spatula ice cake for 6 in. high cake.
  - Make pixels. Roll out all reserved fondant, except sand and white, to 1/16 in. thick. With rotary cutter, cut 32-36 1/2-in. squares of each color. Place in storage board until ready to attach to the cake.
  - Decorate cake. Attach squares to sides of iced cake with dots of icing, positioning squares heavier at the bottom and more random and thinner higher on the cake side. Stop attaching squares about 2 in from top of cake. Insert cake topper.