Sweet Tutorial: How to Make a Fondant Trophy

File under "things you now know how to do": Making a Fondant Trophy. This tutorial, which will help your cake or cupcakes be the winner no matter if there's a contest or not, is reprinted with permission from the book Fondant Modeling for Cake Decorators: 100 Fondant Features to Top Off a Special Cake. Also included in this helpful volume? Tutorials on how to attain different effects using fondant, and how to make other toppers, including a fondant doctor, fondant aliens, and a fondant bible. Because you never know when you might need these kinds of cake toppers.

Edible supplies

• Gum paste
• Corn starch (for dusting)
• Edible glue
• Royal icing
• Dried Spaghetti strands
• gold or silver luster
• Vodka

Tools

• Workboard
• Rolling pin
• Circle cutters in small, extra small, and extra large
• Paintbrush
• Ribbon Cutter 
• Paper Towel

Procedure

1. Roll 1 ounce of paste. Use the circle cutters to cut out one large, one medium and one small circle. Pile up the three circles in size order, with the largest at the bottom. Fix with edible glue.
2. Make a ball from 1/2 ounce of paste and flatten to a hemisphere, but keep as much height as possible. Place this centrally on the top disk and secure with royal icing.
3. For the trophy stem, roll 1/2 ounce of paste very thinly and wrap around a spaghetti strand. Secure to the base of the trophy with edible glue.
4. For the trophy body, shape 2 ounces of paste into a cylinder, then narrow one end. Attach to the base by threading a spaghetti strand through the trophy body and stem and down to the base.
5. To make the trophy lid, cut out another small circle from the white paste and place on top of the trophy body, securing with edible glue. Shape 1/2 ounce of paste into a hemisphere and attach to the circle with edible glue. Add a dot to form a knob on the top.
6. Roll the remaining paste quite thinly, to 1/8 inch, and use the ribbon cutter to cut strips for the trophy handles. Curl one end of the handle one way and the other end the opposite way. Attach to the trophy on either side with edible glue, and support the shape with a paper towel until dry and set.
7. Make a paint by mixing gold or silver luster with vodka, and paint the cup.