How to make a fake cake with spackle

What is a faux cake? How do you make them? Let’s find out together! Join Mom and I in creating our own version of DIY faux cakes.

Table of Contents Show

• Your Cake Rounds
• Applying the Joint Compound
• Let Them Dry
• Gather Paint Sprayer Materials
• Paint Your Cakes
• Glue Your Cakes Together
• Let’s Decorate
• How do you make fake cake frosting?

Supplies we’ve used (below) for this faux cake tutorial.

• Cylinder Gift Box

• Cake Board

• OC-117 Benjamin Moore Matte

• FolkArt Crushed Coral

• FolkArt Sea Shell

• Fast’N Final Lightweight Spackling

• Putty Knife/Scraper Tool

• Piping Bags

• Fake Decorative Cherries

• Fake Decorative Sprinkles

• Cake Stand For Display

You can find many of the products mentioned above at hardware or craft stores near you at varying prices. The links provided are for your convenience for online ordering.

Steps to follow:

1. Base coat the cylinder gift box with white paint.

2. Divide spackle for different colors you’ll need.

3. Add preferred paint colors to one batch of spackle and mix until you achieve desired color.

4. Use spackle or putty knife to spread spackling on the gift box.

5. Mix the white base coat paint in with another batch of spackle to get rid of the gray tint.

6. Add white spackle into piping bag with tip on, twist top to push it down and squeeze onto the faux cake.

7. Add your toppings! Make sure to do it while it’s still wet so they’ll stick.

8. Allow your faux cake to dry a few hours before moving.

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buy spackling for $10, add buttervanilla extract.. Cover foam dummy w press & seal plastic wrap, ice spackling over as with buttercream. Once dry, sand to refine the finish, and slide the shell off the dummy & use it to make other shells. The spackling pipes borders just like BC. Use polymer clay to adhere the foam dummies to cake boards, and then a lazy susan, so no slipping around when decorating. these light cakes travel well, and have held up 6 yrs in a humid Florida garage.

Have you ever wanted to know how to make a faux cake?

This project is perfect for someone who is planning a photoshoot and maybe doesn’t want to spring for the expensive three-tiered cake.

Maybe you are planning a wedding, outdoor tablescape photo, or birthday photo shoot.

A fun project that is not only affordable, it is pretty easy for the most inexperienced DIY-er to do. 

Check out the DIY on my blog.

*Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Worx Tools. All opinions are my own. 

I learned this technique last year when I was scrambling to find a baker for a fall outdoor tablescape photo shoot I was doing.

So I decided to create my own faux beautiful cake instead!

I am so excited to show you how this one turned out.

Materials

• Styrofoam Rounds
• Hot Glue
• Styrofoam Glue
• Foam Brush
• Lightweight Spackling
• Plastic Putty Knife
• Cake Decorations
• Cake Stand (Optional for Staging)
• Acrylic Paint: White, Yellow, Orange

You can choose to substitute brands or craft supplies when necessary.

Your Cake Rounds

I purchase a set of 4 Styrofoam rounds off of Amazon, but you can pick these up at any craft store.

You can also choose any size or shape for your cake rounds, there are so many options.

Applying the Joint Compound

Use the All Purpose Joint compound and apply to the styrofoam forms with a spackling knife.

Let Them Dry

Allow your cakes to completely dry. I only needed three cakes for this project, so I will just save one for a rainy day! 

*Side Note: If you find holes or areas that need repairing, apply another layer of joint compound and let it dry before painting.

You will see a slight color change between wet and dry areas. I allow to dry overnight.

Gather Paint Sprayer Materials

I am so excited that I have the new Maker X Dremel style tool from Worx Tools to use to airbrush this faux cake. 

Paint Your Cakes

We wanted to decorate this faux cake for Halloween to look like a piece of candy corn. So each tier was a different color. 

*Side Note: Even if you want to leave your cake white, I would recommend applying 1-2 coats of white paint. Just to give it a brighter, cleaner looking finish. The joint compound does dry white, but it is very dull.

Also if you want to do a naked cake then I recommend painting your ake with a tan or brown paint before you spackle.

You will lightly coat the cake with spackling, not full coverage.

Glue Your Cakes Together

Use the Styrofoam Glue to glue your cake forms together.

Make sure they are centered when you place each tier.

I prefer to do this after spackling the cake it is easier to do each cake separately in my opinion. 

You could do before you paint totally your preference.

Let’s Decorate

Time to Decorate the cake! We used candy corn,  fall florals, and some acorns we found at the park.

Just dab a bit of hot glue on the bottom of the candy. 

Press the candy on to the cake for just a few seconds each.

We decided to just go along the top two tiers of the cake. 

Just continue adding candy or decor around your entire cake tiers.

We used a toothpick to make some small holes at the top of the cake for the florals to be inserted into. 

At this point we wanted to add a few florals and acorns to the top and side of the cake to balance it out. 

Be sure to check out our fun outdoor fall tablescape post!

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How do you make fake cake frosting?