How to Make a Catnap Character Cake
Sculpt and decorate a Poppy Playtime Catnap character cake with rich purple fondant, wide carved grin, yellow moon pendant, and cat ears.
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🧰 Required Tools & Equipment
- ✓ Serrated carving knife
- ✓ Fondant smoother
- ✓ Sculpting ball tool
- ✓ Offset spatula
- ✓ Silicone rolling pin
- ✓ Piping bag
📦 Materials & Supplies
- ✓ Round sponge cake layers (6-inch)
- ✓ Purple fondant
- ✓ Black fondant
- ✓ White fondant
- ✓ Yellow fondant
- ✓ Purple buttercream frosting
- ✓ Edible glue or water
⚠️ Safety Checkpoints & Warnings
- • Always cut away from your body when carving the chilled cake layers.
- • Ensure internal cake supports or dowels are secure if stacking tall layers.
📋 Step-by-Step Guide (5 Steps)
Stack and Crumb Coat the Cake Base
Place chilled sponge rounds onto a cake board, spreading purple buttercream evenly between each layer. Coat the exterior in a thin crumb coat of buttercream to lock in crumbs, then chill for 20 minutes until firm.
- • Evenly stacked cake tower with smooth, semi-translucent purple buttercream layer locking in all crumbs.
- • Applying crumb coat on a room-temperature cake, causing it to wobble or shed crumbs.
Carve Catnap's Head Shape
Use a serrated knife to gently taper the lower half of the cake to create Catnap's rounded feline head profile. Carve a gentle horizontal indentation across the center where the oversized mouth will sit.
- • Sculpted dome top with a tapered chin and an indented horizontal mouth trench.
- • Carving off too much cake at once instead of shaving small slivers.
Apply the Purple Fondant Cover
Roll out purple fondant to an even 1/8-inch thickness on a dusted mat. Drape it over the crumb-coated cake, gently pressing into the carved mouth groove and smoothing down the sides with a fondant smoother.
- • Smooth purple exterior free of air bubbles with clear definition around the carved mouth contour.
- • Stretching the fondant over the top edges, leading to tearing or elephant skin.
Sculpt the Signature Grin and Eyes
Roll thin black fondant and press it into the mouth groove using edible glue. Roll small white fondant spheres, flatten into oval eyes, and add tiny black pupils before affixing them above the mouth.
- • Deep black gaping smile cleanly bordered by purple fondant, topped by two blank, wide eyes.
- • Using too much water or edible glue, causing black dye to bleed onto purple fondant.
Craft and Attach Ears and Crescent Moon
Knead tylose powder into purple fondant to sculpt two pointed triangular ears with black inner linings, securing them with toothpicks into the cake crown. Cut a yellow fondant crescent moon and adhere it below the chin.
- • Two rigid upright cat ears anchored firmly to the top and a bright yellow crescent moon centered on the chest.
- • Attaching heavy fondant ears without internal support, causing them to droop forward.
Credit: inspired by an original tutorial by GH'S — watch the original on YouTube.
Don’t have everything?
- No Purple fondant? White fondant tinted with violet gel food coloring
- No Fondant smoother? Flat plastic scraper or smooth drinking glass base
- No Tylose powder? A pinch of cornstarch kneaded into fondant to help it hold shape