It’s almost Fathers Day! Our plan of action for this cake design is simple and fun ;0)
Stick figures are not only cute…but everyone can draw them! So, what we’re starting with is a simple picture– draw whatever makes sense for your family….or maybe you have some little ones that would like to draw the template for you. Here’s the picture that I used, but with the dad a little shorter so that he will fit onto a 4″ tall cake! — Click HERE to see. I’m going to include my original template too, for those with taller cakes—CLICK HERE if you’d like to see!
After drawing the template, I placed it on a cake board and then taped a piece of waxed paper on top of it. I melted some black Wilton Candy Melts, and piped over my template using a Wilton piping tip 2. (Some people prefer to skip the tip altogether and just snip the end off of their disposable piping bag.) The smiley faces are added later. No need to trace them now. ;0)
*It is always a good idea to make extras! You’ll likely have some chocolate to spare so it’s good to have the extra insurance of more piped pieces than you need.
After allowing the black to set, (and you can chill everything to speed this along), I added color with more pre colored candy melts.
I added a chocolate “We Love You” too. Then, I chilled everything in the freezer for just a few minutes.
Once the chocolate pieces were firm, I ran my hand beneath the waxed paper to gently release them. It was really hot in the kitchen, so after releasing the pieces, I put the board back in the fridge and only pulled out the pieces as I needed them.
CUTE Father’s Day Blog Tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com!
One by one, I piped little dots of buttercream here and there on the back of the figures and applied them to the cake. ….And here’s the point where I realized the importance of measuring the height of the cake before making the template. My “dad” was taller than the cake! This would have been fine if I had planned to leave their faces empty…but I wanted to add smiley faces. So….some changes had to happen.
I carefully pulled the man stick figure off of the cake…chilled briefly so that I wouldn’t break him…and then I snapped off a little bit of the length of his legs. Then, stuck those feet back on again. — Still cute! This also goes to show that with chocolate pieces like this one, a break is often barely noticeable once the parts are glued back into place with a dot of buttercream ;0)
I piped on smiley faces with a little black buttercream, using a Wilton tip 1.
The final step~ adding our letters! I piped dots of buttercream on top of the cake, and pressed the letters into them. I like the stand-up look, but you may prefer them flat. Either way works well! From this angle, you can also see the dots of buttercream behind our people–a great way to add a little extra support.
Wahoo! We’re finished!
That’s it! If you are comfortable with free handing, you could get a really similar look by piping your figures in buttercream…or if you are working with a fondant covered cake, you could draw the figures with food coloring pens!
Whatever way you choose, I hope that you have fun with the design. Thanks for stopping by!
CUTE Father’s Day Blog Tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com!
Very Cute! Love the colours. Very nice!
Adorable! My kids would love to “help” make this!!
This cake is adorable! I’m going to try to make it!
So adorable! :)
I love the way you show your mistakes….like the dad being too tall. Makes me see that things don’t always go picture perfect, but the cake came out sooo cute after all. Thanks for sharing Great method to learn!
I love this! It’s so fun! I think you just saved me alot of work and I will make this instead of the polo shirt cake I was planning on!!!
Thank you so much for your comments! @Bonnie–yes, things often don’t go quite according to plan in Cakeville! I’m always in favor of fixing or hiding mistakes rather than re-doing whenever possible ;0)! @one428– so glad that you are going to make it! Definitely faster than the polo shirt ;0)!
This is really adorable. Who would of thought using stick people on a cake.
Hi love your work and i want to make the same but problem is that candy melts are not available in my city can i use chocolate does it work same ?
Hi Saleha– Do you have chocolate/almond bark in your grocery store? That’s another type of candy coating that works well. You can also melt white or chocolate chips–it will just be a little softer..but I would imagine that it would still work fine as long as you chill them before handling & placing on the cake! — If you need to tint your chocolate, just note that you can’t use the usual coloring gels–you need to use candy coloring, which is oil based and won’t cause the chocolate to seize. You could also just fill in the colors with buttercream once your chocolate pieces or on the cake. I hope this helps!
Love this!! So creative guys!
Love this!!
Hi Melissa! I love your work! I saw all the recipes from your blog and I can’t decide which is my favorite. You have a priceless talent!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
You make the cutest stick people ever! Love the colors :)
That is the cutest thing! Very cheerful! I am thinking of adapting the idea for a different theme – a graduation cake!
So good, so cute! Very lovely.
I. LOVE. THIS. CAKE!!!
Such a simple way to decorate a cake. What father wouldn’t love this?
Hi Melissa, So I just tried this and couldn’t control the melted chocolate coming out of my #2 tip. It ran out so fast. When I move down to a #1, it gets too squiggly and I can’t get a good enough straight line. I tried several colors of candy melts and did try to let them firm up a bit to pipe again, of course, little clumps would give me piping issues. Any thoughts? I’m thinking they got too hot when melting, but I’m pretty careful about that. I have a client who loves this style and wants me to do it on her cake, with 18 names around the sides and and huge balloon bouquets on the top in the hands of the couple.
( sheet cake). Any suggestions? It just came out sloppy in practicing.
Adorable..i try it for sure
Thank you for sharing this! My husband thought it was a fun cake! My kids loved it too.
Thanks Tenielle, I’m so glad to hear it!!