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How to Make a Gnome Cake

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OK, so how cute is this little gnome cake!? Seriously, love him so much!

A sweet friend of mine contacted me to ask if I could do something in the gnome theme for her boyfriend’s birthday a few weeks back. She gave me creative liberty, and I dreamed this little guy up in my head. I could not be any happier with the way he came out and because I know that gnomes are all the rage right now, I figured I would give you guys a detailed tutorial so that you can make your own!

First, let’s start by making his hat. This is basically a giant cake pop! I happened to have some extra yellow cake on hand, but you could use the cake pieces from leveling your layers or bake just a little bit extra to use for this. You will also need a little bit of icing as well.

I use my Pampered Chef pastry blender (I am an independent consultant, by the way!) to mix the cake and icing together. You can also do this in your KitchenAid stand mixer if you want to, to save your elbows!

 

You don’t have to use colored icing, but I happened to have some on hand from another cake and it worked out. Really, you just want to add enough icing to make it come together into a thick dough. If it still looks crumbly, you need to add a little more. The next picture is your goal:

 

Mold it into the shape of a gnome hat on a piece of parchment paper and then place it in the freezer for at least a half an hour. I let mine chill for about an hour and a half. It’s easier to work with if it is firm.

 

While that is chilling go ahead and make your edible moss using this recipe. It takes a little bit of time, so don’t wait until the last minute! You could even do this a day or two before if you wanted to.

 

Once your moss is in the oven, go ahead and make your modeling chocolate using my recipe here! It is incredibly easy and I typically will go ahead and make all of the colors I need at once.

 

Roll out a few balls of white modeling chocolate in varying sizes. We will be using these to make the mushrooms that are growing out of the side of the stump.

 

Flatten them out into a slightly wavy disc shape and then cut them in half. Set them aside while we do the rest!

 

Whip up some buttercream icing (you could use store-bought, but the real thing tastes best!). Set aside about a cup and a half of white.

 

Next, we need to turn the icing brown. You could do this with chocolate buttercream if you wanted to, but my client wanted vanilla cake with regular butter cream. I used brown Wilton gel coloring to turn it a nice chocolate brown. I will warn you if you’re doing this, you will use the majority of the little pot of food coloring.

 

Fill and stack the two layers of your cake next.

 

Apply a coat of icing. It does not have to be perfect, because you will cover it with the stump texture! Just get some on there, and then smooth that with a cake scraper (I like this style best!).

 

Apply a little bit more icing to the top because you want this to be a bit thicker. Using an offset spatula, spin your cake turn table to make the swirl design on the top. Most of it will be covered, so it definitely does not have to be perfect.

 

Using a large star tip (Wilton 1M) , pipe a swirl onto the side of your cake. It’s hard to describe in words how to do this, so I’ll just show you in a picture. Do make sure that your swirl also has lines going off of it, up to the top of the cake. This creates a “knot”and woodgrain effect.

 

Next, you will do a line going from the bottom to the top around your swirl.

 

Continue working your way around the cake, creating knots in various places and at different heights on the side of the cake.

 

Some lines will be straighter than others. It does not have to be perfect!

 

Your finished stump should look something like this!

Place your little gnome hat “cake pop” on top of the cake. I secured mine using a dowel rod inserted into the cake so that it would stay put!

 

Using white modeling chocolate, make little shoes for your gnome. I gave him pointy feet because I thought that was cute! You just do whatever your little heart desires!

 

Then you will stick his feet on the front of the stump.

 

Using red modeling chocolate, make a set of legs and press them on to the front of the cake as well! I gave little “bell bottoms” to blend where they meet his shoes.

Using Wilton 233 icing tip, in a pastry bag filled with our white icing, we’re going to make his beard.

 

This part is honestly kind of fun. Just pipe and drag strings at various lengths, building on each layer!

Once you have a nice, full beard, stick him in the fridge to chill (and let the icing set up) and let’s make his nose!

Using a toothpick, add a tiny bit of Wilton Copper food coloring to a small ball of softened white modeling chocolate. Knead it well until the color is fully mixed in. It makes the perfect flesh tone. 

Take a good sized piece and roll it into a slightly oval shape Using a toothpick to two (to keep it from sliding down the beard), attach his nose to the top of his beard like this:

I chose to take a little bit and make him some arms and hands. You don’t have to, but it was really cute and easy! 

Next, lightly coat a surface with powdered sugar. Knead and soften a good sized ball of whatever color modeling chocolate you are using for his hat (I used red). 

Roll the chocolate out into a relatively thin sheet (I think mine is about 1/10″).

Carefully lift and wrap it around the hat. Allow some overlap on his nose, arms, etc. Using your hands, press firmly to mold it to the cake pop. You will have some extra sticking off like this:

Just use a good pair of kitchen shears to trim the excess off and then smooth with your hands.

Now, grab your little mushroom pieces. You may have to pinch to thin the edges a bit. Starting with the largest, stick it into the side of the cake wherever you want!

Repeat, offsetting them slightly and working your way down to the smaller ones. 

Dust them with a bit of cocoa powder to give them that true earthy fungus look. 

Sprinkle your moss along the base and on the top of your stump. (You could leave it off of the top if you wanted, but I like it!)

I used a little dab of black food coloring to make some grey modeling chocolate which I shaped into little rocks. So sorry I didn’t get pictures of the process. It was a spur of the moment decision! I dipped them in the moss before placing on the cake to give them a moss-covered look as well. Just stack them wherever you feel like it!

I also molded a couple of mushrooms dusted in cocoa powder to stick behind him on the stump.

I put them on the opposite side to the stump mushrooms to provide some balance. 

There you have it! The most adorable little gnome cake, perfect for the gnome lovers in your life! 

Really, I can’t get enough! 

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  1. Rowena Bunce says

    You are absolutely AMAZING! What a fantastic tutorial with all the pictures and tips and tricks!! My daughter is obsessed with Gnomes and I made this for her birthday tomorrow. Our gnome has a cute purple hat! My daughter is gonna love it!! You made it so easy for me to follow all the steps! This was my first time using modeling chocolate and I kind of love it!! Usually I would do marshmallow fondant for something like this, but I think I’m converted! Thank you for sharing your creativity and your awesomeness!!

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