Purple and Bling 50th Birthday Cake

This is a 12-inch round cake frosted in purple butter cream icing with dark purple borders, swirls and roses.  There are silver dragees and custom wire swirls and a custom silver-glitter "50" cake topper for added "bling". For details on how to make your own custom cake topper, click "read more" below:

Shown after baking (don't worry about grease marks...they
will be painted over!)
I made two sets (just in case!) of salt dough numbers.
I baked them on my baking stone (ideal for this purpose!)
at 250 degrees F for 2 hours (flipping over after 1 hour).
I placed the sharpened dowels in them prior to baking.  The
numbers were made by printing a font I liked in the size I
wanted, then transferred by tracing onto salt dough that
was rolled flat into about 1/2 inch thickness.  I cut them
out with a sharp knife, inserted the dowels and laid them
carefully on the baking stone.

I chose the set I liked best and sanded them slightly with a
new emery board (which is nothing more than a little bitty
sanding stick!).  I painted them with 3 or 4 coats of metallic
silver acrylic paint and dusted them all over
 (while the paint was wet) with Glamour Dust for extra shimmer
regular glitter will do just fine...this is what I had on hand).
I let them dry overnight, then sprayed them with a coat of
clear lacquer to help hold the glitter in place.  The glitter
helps hide all the imperfections in the surface of the numbers
(salt dough can be rough and bumpy).  

After painting and glitter-izing :o)  Bling-bling, baby!  The
photo doesn't do it justice... they really sparkle!

This is the custom wire topper I made for this cake... they
can be purchased ready-made at craft stores, but they are
expensive!  This was easy to do.  I used 18 gauge wire.  I cut
it into about 15 inch lengths.  It is curved slightly from being
wound inside the package, so I had to straighten out on end
for placing it in the cake.  Then take a 3-inch wide cylinder (I
used a cup) and wind the other end of the wire around it one
time.  Then use a 1-inch wide cylinder (I used the top of the
paint bottle... it was handy!) and wind the very end of that
circle you just made around it one time. Now you should
have something shaped like this (see below).

To this one, I added more curve and a slight
back bend, so it would look different in the
middle.  

I know what some of you are thinking... "wire in cake?? No way!"
But, fear not... the wire doesn't touch the cake, nor do the dowels
 on the numbers!  The wires are each placed in coffee stirring
straws (about $2 for 100+ at Walmart), and the 3 coffee straws are
placed into one larger drinking straw (so they appear as one
cake topper and there aren't so many holes in the top of the cake).
The straw is cut to the depth of the cake.  I simply placed a bit of
frosting over the top of the straw to hide it.  The dowels were placed
into clear straws cut to the depth of the cake plus about 1-inch, so the
numbers would be elevated off the top of the cake (and show above
the roses). The clear straws allow the silver color on the dowels to show.
If you try this, be sure to paint about 1-2 inches of the dowel the same
color as your numbers or monogram.  Remember... these can
be made in any number, letter or shape you can imagine!  I will
never pay $15+++ for number or letter toppers again... however, imo...
they will only be pretty if they are glitter-ized b/c the sparkle of the
glitter helps hide all the cracks and grooves and imperfections of the salt
dough.  Now if I find a perfectly smooth salt dough recipe, I will
be sure to share it.  Currenly the recipe I prefer is:
1 part salt
4 parts all-purpose flour
2 parts warm water

These are glass bead that were threaded on from the bottom
of the wire.  I added a tiny dot of hot glue to the end of
the wire and quickly slid the purple bead into place to act
as a bumper to hold all the beads on while I worked.  Once
I covered most of that inner curve with beads, I added a tiny
dot of hot glue onto the wire and slid the final bead for the
curve into place on top of the glue, so those beads in the curve
will not budge.  The single beads along the wire were glued
on the same way... I just put a dot of hot glue wherever I wanted
a bead and slid the bead onto the glue.  Voila... a jeweled wire for
decorating the cake at a fraction of the cost of a ready-made one!
(Craft wire + Dollar store beads... buy the beaded eyeglass
lanyards and take them apart to use the beads!!)