It’s almost Halloween! For my costume this year, I’m dressing up as a wedding cake and my son will be a baker! I love vintage looking cakes (I made fake cake jewelry boxes recently), so I figured this would be perfect! If this sounds like a fun costume too, I’ll show you how to make a DIY cake costume.

diy cake costume

Here’s the inspiration for my cake costume I sketched to guide the making process. Hopefully this helps you see what I was thinking.

Let’s start with the video tutorial so you get an overview on what I did. Then, I’ll dive in with more details below:

If the video doesn’t work here, you can watch it on YouTube here. It’d mean so much if you’d watch the video! I’m trying to get better at my video skills so I can grow my YouTube channel. If you have a few minutes to watch this and/or subscribe, I’d so appreciate it.

SUPPLIES

Cardboard or Foam Board (for cake structure). I used 2 of the smaller 20″x30″ pieces and 2 of the bigger 32″x40″ pieces
Book Binding Tape (to reinforce the structure)
Hot glue gun with hot glue sticks (to glue the structure together)
Lightweight spackle (for the frosting). I used 2 of the 1 gallon size and 2 of the 32 oz. size.
Rit dye in Petal Pink (for coloring the spackle if you want colored frosting)
Body suit, collar and lace gloves. (for wearing under the costume)
Rit dye in Super Pink (for dyeing the clothes to wear under the costume)
Cake Spatula, Large Piping Tips, Standard piping tips, and Disposable Piping bags (for applying frosting to the cake)
Shoes (to make cake shoes)
Straps (to secure the costume to your body)
Rit dye in Truly Green (for coloring the spackle for decorative frosting)
Decorative items: foam roses, leaf frosting tip, wire to make swags, and pearls.
Bow mold and paper clay to create decorative bows for the cake.
Cake hat items: wedding cake topper, styrofoam cake foam, veil.
Drop cloth or plastic covering (to protect surfaces from spackle)
Baker costume to make this costume a mommy and me moment.

step 1- make the structure of the cake

Start by, building the cake structure:

Make a plan: Use a fabric measuring tape to figure out how large the cake opening needs to be so it can fit over your hips, waist and chest. Decide how many tiers you want for your cake. I’m doing two layers with a hat for the third layer.

Draw a circle for the top of the cake: Use cardboard or foam board to create a round layer. Take the measurement from the plan and find the radius (use this calculator. The radius is half of the diameter or width of the cake). Cut a piece of string and tie one end to a pencil and one end to a nail (this large compass also works).
The string distance from the pencil to the nail should be the radius length- so I had a 7-1/2″ string for the 15″ circle. Draw a circle on the foam core. Make the string longer and create a larger circle outside the first circle- I had a 9.5″ string for the 19″ circle.

Cut out the circle for the top of the cake. Take an Exact-o knife and cut out the circles on the pencil lines. Repeat for both the top and the bottom tier.

Cut out the sides of the cake: Use cardboard or foam board to cut out rectangles to create the sides. For the top tier, I’m doing a 10″ tall rectangle. For the bottom tier, I’m cutting out a 14″ tall rectangle. Use the circle calculator to figure out the circumference for both tier. That’s how you’ll know how much length the sides for each tier need to be.
My top tier has a 60″ circumference so I cut 2 rectangles that are each 30″ long. My bottom tier has a 72″ circumference so I cut 3 rectangles that total 72″ long.

Score the sides: To make it so the sides will curve around the cake, they need to be scored. Take an exact-o knife and every 1/4″ inch, score the foam core. Don’t cut all the way through. I’m not measuring, just eyeballing the spacing. This takes awhile, but is an important step.

Attach the layers: Use hot glue to attach the sides of the cake to the top of the cake. At the seams, reinforce with book binding tape. Once each tier has a top, attach the tiers together with hot glue.

step 2- frost the cake

Next, prepare the spackle:

If you want colored frosting, mix Rit Dye or acrylic paint into the spackle to achieve your desired colors. I’m using Rit Dye in Petal Pink for the cake base frosting.

Frost the Cake Costume:

- Apply spackle: Using a cake spatula, apply the spackle evenly across the surface of the cake layers. Try to get it as smooth as possible. Though any swirls and peaks will mimic real cake frosting so don’t worry too much about perfection.
- Work in sections to ensure you get the right texture before the spackle starts to dry.
- Let dry overnight so the spackle will harden and provide a good base to the next step.

step 3- decorate the cake

And now Add Decorations to bring the cake to life:

Mix more spackle in another dye color for the frosting. Or leave it white. For my main decorative frosting, I’m using Rit Dye in Truly Green

Add on decorative “frosting” with Large Piping Tips in Disposable Piping bags. I’m using a star tip to make shell border on each tier. This is slow to do because it takes a lot of spackle to use the large tip.

Add on decorative elements. I’m using hot glue to attach foam roses, adding leaves with a leaf frosting tip, attaching swags made out of wire, and pearls. I also used a mold to create bows for the cake out of clay that I also painted.

Continue adding spackle to look like decorative frosting until the cake feels fully decorative. I’m using Standard piping tips to add more details with a second row of frosting. This time I’m using white spackle out of the can for the details.

Let It Dry:

Allow the spackle to fully dry before handling or wearing the costume. Drying times will vary depending on how thick you’ve applied the spackle. Mine usually are fully dry 24 hours after applying the spackle. The thickest frosting borders took a full 48 hours, so be prepared for that.

Attach Straps:

To wear the costume, attach straps on the inside of the top cake layer. This will help hold the costume in place while you move so you can be hands free. I used hot glue to attach and then re-inforced with book binding tape.

step 4- cake shoes

Next up, the DIY cake costume needs some shoes! For that I thought making cake shoes would be fun! Here’s my sketch of the idea.

To begin, use spackle to cover the whole shoe. Tip, if your shoe is moving on you, stuff it with paper so it’ll hold the structure and make frosting much easier.

Mix up some spackle to a beige color to resemble cake. Use a foam brush to blot it onto the heal of the shoes- making them look like cake.

Layer on “frosting” along the edges to match the main cake and give the decorative look of a cake.

Continue to add details until you’re happy with it. I used a start frosting tip to make little stars then I pushed a pearl into the center. I also added a foam flower and leaves to match the big cake.

These were honestly SO fun to make! They look really cute and are very fun to wear!

step 5- cake hat

My cake is two tiers, so I thought it’d be cute to have a third tier as a cake hat. Since this is a wedding cake costume, this gives me the opportunity to add more of the wedding theme!

First off, frost the base of the cake. I’m doing mine pink to match the rest of the costume.
I then repeated the same steps as the main cake costume- layered on frosting, swags, roses, leaves, and pearls until I was happy. For the top, I thought a wedding cake topper and roses would be cute!
I’m also pairing my cake hat with a wedding veil to give more wedding cake vibes.

step 6- what to wear under the costume

One thing to consider is, what to wear under the cake costume? I decided to wear a body suit, collar and lace gloves. I think ruffle bloomers would also be really cute!

I want the body suit and collar to match so I dyed them with Rit dye in Super Pink.

To dye, add water to a pan and turn it to boiling. Add 1 tsp. of dish soap to the water. Shake the dye and then add some to the water. Get the clothing wet and then add it to the pot. Leave it in until it’s the right color. Rinse it out with warm water and then cold water until there’s no dye in the water. Wash the clothing.

step 7- dye the baker’s costume

Finally, I need something for my son to wear to correspond with my DIY cake costume. I though having him be a baker would be very cute! So I ordered this apron and chef hat. Though, a baker usually wears all white, and I thought that was boring. So in my world a baker wears green!

dye the costume with Truly Green Rit Dye to coordinate with the cake
Hand paint with dye on the apron to make a pattern. I did this because there was a splotch of darker dye on the apron. It did unintentionally make the apron look like a watermelon, but that’s ok!

after

The cake costume is done and it is so cute! I’m very proud of it and can’t wait to wear it trick or treating on Halloween!

I’ll be honest- this was a bit of a tricky project. It took probably 20-25 hours to make. So it’s a bit of a time investment. But it was very fun to dream up and bring to life!

I thought it’d be fun if Don was coordinating so here’s his baker’s costume. He’s such a good sport to dress up with me! Though on Halloween he’ll probably be a soccer player (which is totally fine by me).

I turn 40 next spring and I’m planning a big birthday party. Who thinks I should wear this at the beginning?! I’d have to stitch out the wedding topper for a candle, but that wouldn’t be hard.

Anyway, I’m so proud of how the DIY cake costume came together. It’s not perfect. But it’s fun and lightweight enough to wear around. I’ll probably add tights to my costume for Halloween. What do you think of it? Any questions?