How to Make a Cake Bed

A cake resembling a bed can be a decorative surprise for a slumber party or girls' birthday cake. With a mix of cake, buttercream frosting and fondant, you can create a three-dimensional, edible bed. Even better, you don't need extensive cake-decorating skills to make a cake that will gain the attention of all of the party guests. Although fondant is intimidating to some people, it works much like clay. Practice kneading and molding the fondant ahead of time so that you are comfortable working with it when you make the bed cake.

Roll out a piece of fondant tinted with food coloring to about 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch.

Use a fondant cutter to cut out the shape of a headboard for the cake. Let the headboard dry for at least three days to ensure it is hard enough to support itself.

Roll fondant tinted to skin color into balls to create heads if you are putting people on the bed; also roll log shapes from fondant to create bodies. If you don't wish to use fondant for the bodies, you can use pieces of cake cut into long rectangles. Let the fondant body parts dry along with the headboard.

Place a baked and cooled rectangular cake onto a cake plate. Select the size of the cake based on the number of people you need the cake to feed. For more servings, add a second cake layer, securing the pieces with buttercream frosting to hold them together. This also creates a higher bed.

Tint the buttercream frosting with food coloring to the color that you want the bed sheet to be.

Spread the frosting in an even layer over the top and sides of the cake.

Decorate the faces you made with royal icing tinted to the appropriate colors. Add simple facial features and hair to each ball of fondant. If you're hosting a party for kids, decorate the faces to resemble the party guests.

Arrange the characters in the bed by placing the bodies and heads in a row lengthwise along the cake. The heads should be where the pillows would be.

Roll out a piece of fondant large enough to cover the bed, and cut it into rectangular shape; this will become the bed's blanket.

Drape the fondant over the cake like a blanket; it should fully cover both the "bed" and "bodies," leaving only the heads to peek out from the fondant blanket.

Spread extra buttercream frosting onto the section of the headboard that will rest against the cake; this will help hold it in place.

Press the headboard against the side of the cake and hold it for a few minutes to allow the frosting to set up.

Add detailing to the cake with royal icing or buttercream frosting. For example, you can draw designs on the blanket or write a birthday message on the cake.