This is a great book with colorful, detailed tutorials on how to make your own Cake Toppers. Great instructions along with pictures will have you creating in no time.

My cake toppers would never in a million years come out looking this wonderful, but it was awesome to see all the amazing and intricate designs.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Make Your Own Cake Toppers is an adorable, quirky book about making your own, homemade cake toppers to decorate and spruce up any cake regardless of if its homemade or shop bought. This book covers ideas for so many different types of occassions: pets, birthdays, special birthdays, weddings, festive, new baby, animals, princess, superheros and so many more.
The book shows you step by step with clear and easy to follow instructions and a guide to equipment and tools you will need too. You can use fondant or polymer clay (but don't eat this one) to make your toppers with. This is such a bright and fun book and although it seems aimed more for younger people (ie. kids) you can easily adapt the toppers to be more mature visually.

Stunning book with easy to follow instructions and great ideas to suit any occasion. All very cute and can be made with fondant or for a keepsake, out of polymer clay. There is something about molding that bring out the child in us, and these are really both fun and look great for any special occasion being wedding, birthday or celebration.
Great book

Talk about and easy to follow, simple guide to making fun cake toppers!! There are lots of examples and the directions are step by step. With wonderful pictures for each step. I feel very confident I could totally make any of these cake toppers now!

Make Your Own Cake Toppers is a versatile and whimsical tutorial guide to cake toppers and decorations by Darren Allford. Due out 30th May 2022 from Pen & Sword on their White Owl imprint, it's 152 pages and will be available in paperback format.

The fun tutorials included here are full of wit and humour and are cute and appealing as well. The author begins with a general introduction to the tools, materials, and techniques. The projects are written for either polymer clay or fondant and he does a good job of explaining the simple tools needed to shape, mold, and create with both fondant and polymer clay, as well as the inks and powders which will add detail and finish.

The projects are arranged thematically: a girly 21st b'day topper, farm animals, baby themed, pets, gamer, fairies, unicorn, festive holiday elf, glamour/diva, superhero, wedding, and princess. I'm definitely a process based learner, so this book was perfect for me. Each tutorial includes detailed step-by-step instructions with clear process photos. The photographs are crisp and clear, the steps are very well delineated, and the projects are super cute and appealing (see cover). The projects are mostly whimsical and have a younger/kid-age feel in my opinion; but could easily be adapted for more grownup projects. Stylistically, they're heavily slanted toward kids' birthdays, and casual celebrations, and much less appealing for very formal weddings or other serious occasions.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

Darren Allford is writing from the UK so he uses British English e.g. "greaseproof paper" for "waxed paper" and prices in £. As a Brit, he also has a closer tie to claymation films than we do. His cake toppers owe a lot to Wallace and Gromit (except for the sheep, see below).

The book contains 13 How-To designs plus a handful of photos of other creations. The toppers are made from fondant or from polymer clay. The instructions show how to create the shapes and then how to decorate.

This book takes minimalism to the extreme. For example, Mr. Allford suggests that you buy a kit of tools but there is no picture of such a kit. Later, the instructions say to use the tool "with the ball on the end of it". A photo would have been nice.

The book layout is off, in that the paragraphs are all justified left. Near the beginning Headings and Subheadings are in different colors. Later they are all the same color. I'm reading an ARC. Has this been fixed in the final edition?

The person who is creating the birthday girl does not have a good manicure. The close-up of the thumb is a bit ugly with what is probably a bit of clay or an ink stain on the cuticle but looks like an infection. Yuck.

While some of the designs are cute, the farmyard sheep looks like a lion and even after I realized that it is supposed to be a sheep, it is still a lion. Sheep have black faces that stick out, not flat faces with jowls. The unicorn looks like a sheep. Horses, and we presume unicorns, have long noses with the nostrils at the sides.

Finally, the text is a bit gushy and there are some awkward sentences we can hope get smoothed out in the final edit

Online there are a zillion photos of polymer clay figurines and instructions on how to make them. I'm not convinced that this minimalist book will be at all helpful to you.

Written in a casual and friendly tone, this delightful set of characters will make you want to start creating in fondant or polymer clay immediately. Step-by-step instructions with color photos make fashioning cake toppers look so easy! Be prepared to need lots of colors, though, as the cartoon-like toppers are super colorful. The book provides a list of useful tools but lacks any instructions like a chart of typical shapes or basic tips for working with polymer clay, so it may not be for the absolute beginner, but it’s so adorable that you’ll be dying to get started!

I have baked so many cakes in my life and for some reason, it has never occurred to me to make my own cake toppers. I really enjoyed Make Your Own Cake Toppers by Darren Allford. This was a well put together book that will help me to make toppers in the future. I loved that the instructions included photographs to go along. Great book! I look forward to purchasing this book for our library.

Thank you Darren Allford and Pen & Sword for the ARC!

I'm a part time cake maker (hobby only) and always looking for new ideas on how to make more elaborate or fun cakes. This book certainly fit the bill!

The cover is very appealing, the book is well written and gives clear instructions, and many of the ideas would be adaptable or open for the reader's own extension of the ideas.

I enjoyed making some of the toppers, and would recommend this to anyone who needs to find new inspiration.

Wonderfully cute and sweet toppers for a special person's cake! What a lovely idea to make customised toppers. It would be so meaningful.

The step by step instructions are accompanied by color photographs and are adequate for even a beginner to start with this craft. There is enough information to go on with your own designs with inspiration from this book. Love it!

This was a really fun and easy book to read to learn how to make cake toppers. There were a lot of clear pictures of the end results and steps along the way for each creation. I also think there was a great variety of toppers, from wedding to fairies to dogs. I was really drawn to the colorful, cartoony style of the toppers.

The beginning also introduced you to all the materials needed and what they were used for. It made it very beginner friendly and would serve as a handy reference for further creations as well.

Great book for anyone hoping to learn and experiment with cake decorating! I’m considering using what I learned to make a wedding cake topper for my upcoming wedding!

This is the most adorable cake topper book ever! Not only is it full of the cutest, quirkiest, sweetest cake toppers, but they’re actually achievable. The instructions are clear, simple and in easy to follow wording, and the step by step close up photographs guide you through each individual component of the cake topper.
The cake toppers featured look amazing, really detailed, and shop bought they’re that good! I thought they’d be far too hard, but the fantastic imagery and clear instructions break them down into doable designs for even the novice cake decorator.

Thank you to Pen & Sword and Netgalley for an eARC of this book to read and review.

Excellent book.
Although a bit wordy the pictures are clear and detailed enough for you to follow along even if you don't understand the instructions.
Lovely designs that seem really easy and yet effective. I love that these can either be made from fondant or clay.
This definitely fills a gap in the subject and gives done great ideas for other projects.
Recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It’s a great resource for anyone who wants to be creative with their baking finishes. Lots of ideas and inspiration. Fun and easy to follow.

Great techniques, tip, and ideas for creating your very own cake toppers for any occasion. The techniques and ideas can also be used for clay creations.

Remember when we were kids and we played with clay and made things? This is the adult version and I love it! I’ve made quite a few things for my daughter over the years with polymer clay, so I figured, why not try and make edible cake toppers with fondant too?

This book as clear and easy to follow instructions that will help you get started and soon you will be creating your own designs and making decorated cakes for family and friends just because you can. How awesome would it be for a friend to give you something that was made specifically for you? I love this idea and am planning a batch of cupcakes for my next coffee klatch with each one decorated individually for my friends.

What a happy how-to guide! I couldn’t help but smile at the fantastically adorable toppers and kept thinking about what a fun activity this could be with children or adults. I’ll admit I’m pretty casual about celebrations but I really adore the idea of creating keepsake cake toppers made, without a ton of talent perhaps, but with a lot of love.

I appreciated the encouraging tone of this book, the instructions and the full color photos that showed not only the finished product but the creating as well.

I really enjoy making cakes and I was delighted to receive a copy of Make Your Own Cake Toppers.
This book had colourful photographs that encouraged me to try this out for myself.
There were detailed instructions of the ingredients and tools I needed and tips on how to achieve the best results.
I’m really looking forward to choosing a design for my next project.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pen and Sword Books for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.