Trick or Treat! How to Make a Ghost Topper

Hello there!  Today I finished a cute cake for all of you who are already thinking about ghosts and goblins & trick or treating fun!  This post was actually intended for last Friday…& was going to revolve around ice cream cones frosted to look like ghosts.  Such a cute idea in my mind….but not so cute in real life.  Booooooooo.

The good news is that today’s topper did pass the cuteness test!

It’s our cute trick or treating ghost!

For the head, I compressed/molded a Rice Krispie Treat into a ball approximately 1 1/4 inches wide.  Then, I dipped the end of a lollipop stick into a little melted candy melts and drove the stick into my rice cereal ball.  This just helps to keep everything where it belongs. (If you would rather, you could do the same thing with a ball of gum paste or fondant and allow to dry firm.).

Next, I snipped a piece of 20 gauge floral wire in half and wrapped it around the lollipop stick  until secure.  I hooked the ends so that my ghosty could hold onto her candy bucket.   You do not have to use 20 gauge….just choose something that will be stiff enough to hold it’s shape.  The wire serves as “ghost arms”…and also will help to give a little movement to our ghost costume.

I smoothed a little fondant over the rice cereal treat ball.  This is optional, but helps if you feel that your cereal ball is a bit lumpy.

 

Next, I took fondant with some tylose mixed in (gum paste would be great too, as well as a 50/50 mix of fondant and gum paste) and I rolled it nice and thin….I then draped it over the ”lollipop body” we’ve made.

Do a little trimming until your fondant drapes just how you like.

Now, for the candy bucket!  I had some candy pumpkins that we’ll talk about a little later.  I just lopped off the top, brushed with a little piping gel so that my sprinkle “candy” would stick, and then pushed a “u” shaped wire (ends dipped in candy melts) into it.

The handle of the bucket easily hangs from the hooked hands that we made earlier.  Then, for a little something extra, I added fondant shoes and a bow.  The shoes make our ghost look more like a little girl dressed up in a costume rather than an actual ghost that’s hungry for candy :0)

The eyes are drawn on with a food coloring pen….and I decided to draw a face on our pumpkin bucket too!

I used my ghost within a few hours of making her, but for best results…allow to dry for a couple of days.  She’ll be less fragile.

 

Now our topper is finished!  One of the most important things about the topper is the anchor.  I like an extra long anchor, and so I snipped a drinking straw to the approximate height of the cake or so, and slid the lollipop stick anchor right into it.  Easy!  Now our little trick or treater can stand up straight.  ;0)

 

 

Now that our ghost is ready, let’s add some personality to the sides!  Today, I did this with a bag of Mellocreme Pumpkins.  They remind me a little of Candy Corns as far as texture, in case you haven’t seen them.  Anyway, these made for a super quick pumpkin patch scene…

Then, I pressed the pumpkins into the sides of my buttercream-frosted cake.  (Use a little buttercream as glue if your frosting has crusted over.)

Details……

This  pumpkin border was so much fun… it only took a few minutes!  That’s my kind of decoration.

Now let’s take a look at the big picture!!!

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial– be sure to whip up a trick or treater topper or pumpkin patch sometime soon!! (Or at least, go buy a bag of Halloween candy to celebrate the fact that you have something new to put in your Halloween file!) –

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Category: Blog Tutorials, Custom Toppers & Figure Modeling, Fall, Seasonal & Holiday

53 Comments

  1. Chrys says: #1

    This is too cute! Love the bucket and bow!

  2. Maureen Chapman says: #2

    Omgoodness….she is so cute. Great ideas!!!

  3. Jminton says: #3

    I absolutely love this…can’t wait to do (try to do :) myself. Thanks so much for sharing! :)

  4. Dawnuelle says: #4

    Greetings Melissa!

    This cake is FANTASTIC!!! I love it. Please tell me what the stems are made from. They look like chocolate sprinkles but I wanted to be sure.

    Thanks!

    ~ Dawnuelle

  5. Michelle says: #6

    FANTASTIC!!!! Thank you soooo much for sharing your idea’s with us I’ll be making this for my granddaughter She’ll love it xx

  6. BeBe says: #7

    Thanks for the nice comments. Yes, the pumpkin stems are chocolate sprinkles.

  7. seabass123 says: #8

    Sooooooo cute. What was used to make the orange top of the cake that the cake topper is standing on?

  8. BeBe says: #9

    Orange sanding sugar is on top of the cake.

  9. The ghost topper looks amazing, its so cute! and the pumpkin patch detail.. wow.

  10. Kathy Pry says: #11

    So cute! I really love the pumpkin patch border, such a great idea!

  11. Trisha says: #12

    oooooh geepers that ghost topper is SO DARN CUTE!! She doesn’t scare me at all…what does scare me is the fact that I would and can eat this whole cake up lickety split and not feel bad at all! GREAT topper tutorial!!!!!

  12. funkreativekakes says: #13

    Super Cute….I love it. :)

  13. Erica Kovacs says: #14

    Absolutely darling!

  14. Lori says: #15

    Love it!!!

  15. Brenda says: #16

    I’m not big into the scarey side of halloween, but I have to say THIS IS WAY CUTE!

  16. Cat says: #17

    Did you use your Fluffy Buttercream on this cake?

  17. BeBe says: #18

    Hi, yes we did.

  18. JENNIFER says: #19

    I love it! This is soooo cute. I’m gonna make this for Halloween.

  19. carolyn chapparo says: #20

    Super cute.. I can’t wait to try this cake.. The ghost is just adorable. Thanks for sharing.

  20. erica says: #21

    i was wondering… how many layers is that? 3 or 4??? and is it an 8 or 9 inch circle? it’s so cute, i’m gonna try it this weekend! :)

  21. Melissa Diamond says: #22

    Thanks!!

    Erica–this is a 6″ round—two fat layers (so, the cake was right around 4″ in height) – Thanks for the question, I should have included that info–

  22. Cakes On The Lane says: #23

    This is adorable!

  23. Kristen Sheets says: #24

    Holy cow, Is this just that cutest cake!!!
    I was actually browsing looking for a birthday cake idea for a friend, but when I came across this, I knew I’d found the cake I’ll be making for the bake auction at my kids’ school’s fall festival! Thank you for sharing scuba wonderful idea!!! This makes me want to skip work and go shopping for pumpkin candy!!

  24. Kristen says: #25

    *such, not scuba, lol. Auto correct strikes again! :)

  25. Melissa Diamond says: #26

    Thanks Kristen–love the random auto-correct words ;0) — I hope you have scuba a good time making this!

  26. lucyinaz says: #27

    Super super cute!!!! Love it!!

  27. jr06478 says: #28

    That is so adorable.

  28. Cake mommy says: #29

    So cute! I was looking for an idea for the school fall festival cake walk. I think I found my cake. Thanks.

  29. Pandora says: #30

    I love it! So creative and cute! I just need the ingredients. What a great idea for a bake sale or cake walk. Thank you for the steps and photos in making this adorable cake and topper.

  30. Margie says: #31

    That is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!!!!! Melissa, you are just the best!
    Thanks for sharing this one. I can’t wait to try it!!!!!! :O

  31. 4sweetssake says: #32

    I just love this! Definitely going to give it a try…

  32. Jules says: #33

    This is absolutely adorable & I will definitely make it. Thank you for your wonderful tutorials!!

  33. svklovescake says: #34

    Just made this with my 8 year old as a mother daughter project. We had a blast! Such a cute idea. Thanks for sharing this wonderful tutorial!!

  34. Rachael says: #35

    I’m feeling an “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” pumpkin patch cake inspired by this one–love it!

  35. Bela says: #36

    This is sooooo cute and simple to do thanks for all your wonderful ideas!

  36. K says: #37

    OH SO CUTE!!! Now I am going to have to have a Halloween party!!!

  37. Rocio R says: #38

    soo cute love it!!!!

  38. Brenda says: #39

    I’m not really into the scarey halloween, but this is so cute. I think my Mom would enjoy it at the nursing center. So, I just might have to try this one :)

  39. Maureen Zaccaria says: #40

    This is so cute!!!

  40. Lucina McNally says: #41

    I just love this one. It’s soooo cute. will definitely give this one a try.

  41. Alison Dockree says: #42

    Thankyou so much, I read your tutorial and managed to do a version of your lovely ghostie! Many thanks!

  42. Brenda says: #43

    Well, I tried it. I’m the same Brenda as up above…just divided my cookie-ing and my cake-ing into two not very frequently updated blogs. Some months are better than others. Anyway, I finished a cake sorta, kinda like yours. I made the layers white (vanilla flav), orange (orange flav) and yellow (lemon flav). I think my Mom will totally get a kick out of this cute idea…and she loves me so maybe she won’t notice that I almost dropped the cake and think I got it a weeee bit outta kelter. Thank you SO much for the idea!!!! Now, one more to thank a school principal for my “boo-ti-ful” little office at her school (I travel) and she was VERY kind. Want to put a little desk behind Missy Ghost Girl, but think I better leave well enough alone:)

  43. Brenda says: #44

    Just thought you might like to see my Mom with her cake that I posted. Thank you for such a wonderful idea…one that I could attempt and one that would bring joy to an aging parent.

  44. Melissa Diamond says: #45

    Brenda–I you did such a GREAT job!! The ghost is just as sweet as can be. I loved reading your blog and seeing the picture of you with your mom. (Just want to make sure that everyone knows that they can click on your name to be carried to your website) :0) — Thanks for sharing!

  45. hellokitty says: #46

    My husband wants me to make him a couple of cakes for his Halloween Bake sell at work. I have to make this one. It’s so stinkin cute! Thank you for the awesome tutorial.

  46. Sheron Smith says: #47

    That is the cutest thing…you have awesome ideas

  47. Lisa in nJ says: #48

    I’m going to try to make this on Saturday for my work peeps. They are going through cake withdrawl. LOL

  48. xmstazx says: #49

    Ok I tired it…while it’s not as good looking as your’s it’s pretty cool. If you click on my name you can see it.

  49. Catherine Lambert says: #50

    I have my ghost made. It looks pretty good so far. Can’t wait to do the rest.:-))

  50. Dr. Janet McComb says: #51

    I made two of these wonderful little ghost cakes. One went to my husband’s work. The people in the office were reluctant to cut it, because it was too cute! The other went to our family hayride, bonfire, cookout. It was a hit with everyone, but my thirty year old son was this cake’s cake’s greatest admirer!

  51. Melissa Diamond says: #52

    Janet, so glad to hear that you made two ghost cakes and that they were a hit! Thanks to everyone else whose comments I am just now seeing! It’s so nice to hear feedback from tutorials!! ;0)

  52. Sherrie Jones says: #53

    Such a cute cake!

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