How to make a Grinch Cake

Merry Christmas Cake Couture Loves!!

I am excited to share how to make this super fun ugly sweater Grinch cake!

In this blog post I will share design details for each tier and how it all comes together.

With that, let's get started!

What you will need:

A modeled Grinch or toy topper - check out the steps and details to make him here
The Grinch letter template for FREE here
6" cake covered in red fondant
8" cake covered in white fondant and airbrushed black (or an 8" covered in black fondant)
10" cake covered in the Grinchy green covered cake
Fondant colored Grinch green, red, white and yellow
Gold luster dust
3" foam ball (or similar size) and skewer for the ornament
6 cake stacking straws and 3 skewers
Funky letter cutters
Fondant extruder
6"round cardboard cake pad, 6" smooth foam cake or similar work surface
Fondant essentials: roller, smoother, silicone brush (coming to our shop soon!) shortening, powdered sugar

Cake design steps by tier:

Top tier - 6" Red

Step 1: The top tier is red with a cozy snow look on top of it... I love the cozy snow look! To get this to fit *just* right use a similar sized cake pad. Since this is a 6"cake use a 6"cake pad here.
Step 2: Roll out a thin layer of fondant (about 1/8"thick) as if you were going to cover a cake. At most incorporate about 1/2 or 3/4 of the cake side wall length to extend beyond the 6"cake pad. So for this cake I rolled out a round piece of fondant about 11-12" in diameter.
Step 3: Using a small sharp knife cut a asymmetrical wavy edge around the entire circumference.
Step 4: Brush the top of the red tier with shortening and place the white snow cap layer on top of it ensuring to carry through the asymmetric look. Apply shortening to the overhang sides
Step 5: Using a silicone brush (coming to our shop soon!) pass along the edge of the cut 'snow' to give it a softer look.

Bottom Tier - 10" Grinch Green

Step 1: Place your 10"green cake on your designated cake board. I like to glue the cake pad on the cake itself to my white cake boards.
Step 2: Cut out yellow eyes a red pupil and a white dot. Model eyebrows and a nose to complete the face.
Step 3: To make a candy cane border roll out a long piece of white fondant and extrude long pieces of thin red fondant with a fondant extruder. Use shortening to push red strips onto the white fondant (note: you can see that I placed two red stripes next to each other and also used only one to get a more realistic candy cane look). Roll gently and twist to get the candy cane look.
Step 4: Place at the edge of the green cake tier

Middle Tier - 8" Black

Step 1: Print two Grinch lettering templates. Use one print to cut the letters out and the other to reference to position letters.
Step 2: Roll out your green fondant. If you have a pasta roller attachment I like to use the #1 setting for these letters. You can let your fondant sit for a few minutes to harden up. This will make the letters much easier to cut and easier to work with
Step 3: While you are waiting for the green to firm up a bit, stack the black tier on top of the green tier. I used 4 stacking cake straws in the green tier.
Step 4: Adhere the Grinch letters with shortening and position accordingly. You can see below that I cut all of the letters in one block and used that hole to position the letters
Step 5:With the black tier complete, I used two stacking straws cut to size of the black tier. I also used two long skewers and pushed them down through the black and green tiers all the way through into the cake board itself (and used dikes - directional cutters - to cut the skewers)

The Ornament

Step 1: Push a skewer through your round foam ball about 1/2 - 3/4 of the way through. Pull the skewer out, cut to desired length and rotate the skewer around to have the pointed part down.
Step 2: Cover your foam ball with shortening and cover in red fondant
Step 3. Make a small yellow piece for the ornament topper as well as a white piece for the ornament highlight. Mark lines on the edge for a more realistic look
Step 4: I tried to make the ornament look more realistic by adding a small bent flower wire. If you don't have this a paperclip should work as well. Position the foam ornament between the green and black tiers

Fondant Message Letters

Step 1: Roll our fondant very thin, if you have a KitchenAid pasta roller I like to use roll the fondant down to a #2 setting. Let your thin fondant layer dry a bit
Step 2: Use fondant letter cutters (coming to our shop soon!) to cut out your message
Step 3: Adhere to the cake board using shortening