Instructions for an Edible Party Hat Cake Topper

Want a cake that doesn’t require fondant PLUS a topping that you can eat? The solution is this edible party hat cake topper, which is fashioned from rice krispie treats and topped in piped buttercream.

What youngster wouldn’t want it on their cake?

You may make the hat and cake in whatever color you choose. I just chose bright celebration colors.

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This requires no actual plumbing abilities. All you need are some piping bags and a star tip. It’s a good idea to have more than one star tip on hand so you don’t have to continually changing your bags, or to have some icing couplers for your piping bags so you can quickly shift your icing tip to the next bag.

When you’re ready to enjoy the cake, just take a knife and score around and under the hat, then snap it off. You may then divide it into pieces so that everyone gets a rice krispie treat covered with buttercream as well as a piece of cake. Yum!

Now for the instruction.

There’s also a video towards the bottom of this page.

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Supplies Needed for the Party Hat Cake Topper:

• Cake was baked and frosted. I used an 8-inch circular cake pan. To make it taller, use three layers of cake. (My favorite cake recipes are Vanilla Bean Cake and Simple Chocolate Cake.)
• Buttercream colored to your desired hues (Heres my buttercream recipe: Vanilla Buttercream)
• Wilton Candy Melts and prepared Rice Krispie Treat Mixture (see notes below)
• Long wooden dowel with one end sharpened
• funnel made of silicone (to help you form the hat) You could definitely use a plastic one, but the one seen above was the exact size and worked well for me.
• edible marker and a small round circle cutter (if making polka dots on your hat)
• Star recommendations (I used a Wilton 21) It’s a good idea to keep a couple of them on hand.
• Wilton 2D tip for the hat’s base and top, as well as the border on the bottom of the cake
• Piping sacks

Making the Edible Party Hat Cake Topper:

First, prepare your rice krispie treat mixture. I followed the original rice krispie treat recipe except for one change.

Here is how I created mine:

• 3 teaspoons melted butter
• 4 cups miniature marshmallows
• 6 cups rice krispie treats

In the microwave, I melted the butter and marshmallows. Since marshmallows burn fast, do this in intervals. After melted, combine it with a cup of melted Wilton candy melts. Combine everything well.

You don’t have to add the melted caramel melts, but it actually helps to give it a bit more stiffness so the hat stays together a little better.

If desired, a little melted chocolate might be added.

I then added the rice krispies. I blended in half of it before adding the other half. You’ll have to mix this with your hands since a spoon isn’t going to cut it.

Go fetch a child; they can easily perform the mixing for you. Youngsters adore sticky things; just watch them wash their hands first; they’ll tell you they did, but no, no, no.

By the way, spray your hands (or the kids’ hands) with nonstick spray or just cover with shortening. It aids in the stickiness.

When you’ve combined everything together, spray your funnel with nonstick spray and press handfuls of rice krispie treat mixture into it. Stuff it as tightly as possible.

After everything is well packed in your funnel, simply make sure the rice krispies at the entrance (which will be the bottom of your hat) are reasonably flat.

Just lay it on wax paper to set up while you work on your cake.

Putting the cake together:

I kept it basic with the cake. I simply iced it with white buttercream and piped some huge stars around the base as a border using the Wilton 2D tip. Isn’t it simple?

After you think your hat is set enough, place it on the cake and decorate it. I only waited approximately 30 minutes for my hat to dry.

Remove your hat from the funnel. Since you sprayed it with cooking spray, it should readily come out.

To add polka dots, I used a tiny circle cutter (the 1 inch circle cutter) and drew around them with an edible marker. This will serve as a guideline while piping.

Have you ever finish anything and realize you made it more difficult than it should have been, and then you feel stupid? This is one of those occasions. To give myself a guide, I used the edible marker to draw around the interior of the circular cutter, although it was a hassle working from the inside of the cutter. Thus, if you can, sketch around the outside of the cutter to make things easy.

I then just touched up any portions of the circles that required it. It does not have to be flawless. This will not be seen in the end result.

When you’ve placed the circular guides where you want them, sharpen one end of a dowel rod. After sharpening, you should wash the end of the knife to ensure it is clean.

With a twisting motion, insert the sharp end into the bottom of the cap.

Just place it on top of your cake. If the dowel is too long, remove it, trim it, and then replace it. Check the height of your cake before attempting to install it.

It’s time to start piping the buttercream.

I chose blue for the bulk of the hat, but you may use whatever color you wish.

Just use your star tip to pipe blue all over the hat except for the circles you made and the very top. After you’ve completed the blue, go in and pipe your other colors within the polka dots.

I decided on purple:

Yellow:

Green:

In addition, Red:

At this point, you should have finished all of the rice krispie treats.

Now, take the red and pipe swirls on the very top of your hat using a 2D tip.

Proceed along the bottom with a 2D tip and add some huge stars for the hat’s foundation.

Check out the video below for a walkthrough of all the steps:

So, what are your thoughts? I think it’s adorable, and every part of it (except the dowel) is edible. Isn’t it cool?

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