One Cake Topper SVG & Tutorial
Craft this adorable and gorgeous one cake topper from the SVG! When you’re done, you’ll want to check out this DIY felt first birthday crown template and SVG too. This post contains affiliate links.
We are right back with Baby Jay’s first birthday party crafts and here’s one of my favorite things I designed for it: a one cake topper SVG!
As a relatively new laser crafter, I really wanted to try making a wood cake topper for a change. There are ramifications to this, which I will share below – feel free to use the table of contents to skim the post if you’re short on time but I do offer lots of valuable tips for making this first birthday cake topper.
Baby Jay’s first birthday party had a “soft theme” of “watch me grow” – meaning not everything was strictly themed. We had some gentle botanicals – particularly gender neutral eucalyptus – incorporated, but it mostly centered on the colors beige, gold, and sage.
The goal of this one cake topper was to be able to have a basic “naked” cake (a bakery babka in this case) while keeping with the color scheme. I left some wood exposed, painted some, but more on that later.
Download the One Cake Topper SVG
This is a premium download, availableย in my Etsy shop. Your purchase helps keep this blog alive and the tutorials coming.
Your download includes two version of the one cake topper SVG – one that has holes to hang any kind of mini banner from it, and one without holes to leave as is.
Tips for Making a Laser Cut One Cake Topper
I try to leave crafts like this open-ended for you, while providing the structure to craft it easily. Here are some tips and variations, as well as advice on making it safe to stick into your cake.
Tips for laser cutting this cake topper
I cut this using my xTool F1 Ultra – you can read my F1 Ultra review here. I do also have an F1, and while it can technically be cut using that machine too (read my xTool F1 review here) you will be more limited with size. It can only really get a functional size at all using the slide extension. Again, you can read my rundown of the xTool F1 vs. Ultra here to understand more about which laser you need.
As far as laser type, you’ll want a Diode or CO2 laser for this one.
Wood is a flammable material, and I usually prefer to more passes on lower power to avoid charring. I did not do this while laser cutting this one cake topper SVG and you an see the charring on it. Later crafts, such as these earrings, were cut using this method with fabulous results.
Can you cut this with your Cricut?
The Cricut Maker 3 can officially cut wood up to 2.4 mm using the knife blade, but it’s the only model that can do so. I crafted mine from 3mm basswood, so technically the Cricut would NOT be able to cut it. You CAN make this with thinner wood – it’s not going to get heavy use.
It is MUCH more efficient to cut it using a laser cutter.
However, you can cut this using your Cricut as an even ideal tool if you make it form one of the following materials that SHOULD work:
Or a mix of the above. The thinner materials may need to be stabilized with extra layers. You may also want to cut off the “prongs” that are part of the SVG and just glue on skewers.
Making it food safe
One big mistake I made while crafting the one cake topper was that I didn’t realize that cut plywood isn’t food safe! The top surface can be, but plywood is made from layers of wood glued together, and the glue is not food safe.
Some solutions include:
- Make it using acrylic – see my rundown of which acrylics a diode laser can cut here.
- Seal the prongs using a food-safe sealer
- Wrap the prongs with plastic wrap or foil before inserting into the cake
Tips and variations
The SVG is designed to be crafted two ways. There are two layers, one that says “one” in a script font and one that serves as an outlined background for that and has the skewers. That’s the base.
I got creative, painting the top with Glitterific paint with confetti sequins in it, and the background a sage color to match the party.
You also have a version with holes and a version without holes. I made a sweet little pennant banner for it. I did not include an SVG for this because it’s overkill: just cut scraps of paper into triangles and hot glue them onto a bit of string. If you REALLY want to machine cut it, just add a triangle from your device’s design software and cut that.
More ideas for banners include:
- Felt pennants
- Mini pom poms
- Mini circle banners
- Beaded banners (I did one like this for A’s birthday and hope to share it when I can!)
- Mini tassels
Or, use the SVG without the holes and omit the banner completely. But I gotta say, it sorta made the whole cake. Do it.
How to Make a One Cake Topper
I always write out the tutorial exactly as I crafted it, however, you can definitely vary it as I mentioned above.
Materials
- 3mm Basswood Plywood
- Diode or CO2 Laser – I used the xTool F1 Ultra
- Paint – I used DecoArt Americana in Aloe and FolkArt Glitterific Polka Dots in Beach Party
- Paint brush
- Wood glue
- Paper or cardstock scraps
- Scissors
- String/ribbon/twine
- Hot glue gun
The one cake topper SVG in case you missed it
This is a premium download, availableย in my Etsy shop. Your purchase helps keep this blog alive and the tutorials coming.
Instructions
1. Resize your topper to the size you want it. Cut your two layers.
2. Paint your layers as you’d like them to be. Allow them to dry completely.
3. Glue the “one” on the background so that the holes line up.
5. Cut long triangles from cardstock.
6. Cut a length of string about twice the width of your topper.
7. Glue on the triangles far enough apart that just a teensy bit of string shows through. The pennant portion should be long enough to reach almost from hole to hole but with a bit of drape.
8. Tie it to the hole on one side.
And glue the knot in place.
9. Trim off the extra string.
10. Repeat it on the other side, tying it so that the banner drapes slightly, just below the “one”. You don’t want it to drape too much, or it’ll interfere with the cake. You can glue the pennant to the part where it hits the stakes if you want.
Seal the wood to make it food safe! Insert into the cake and enjoy!
I hope you enjoyed this one cake topper SVG! In case you missed it, you can get it here!
