Olive is 3 years old! When I was writing a post on Instagram about her birthday party, I had to stop and think, wait is she 2 or 3? She’s 3??? Wow. Anyway, this year for Olive’s THIRD birthday, she wanted a gumball machine cake (well at first she said she wanted a bowling alley on top of her cake but I’m not that skilled). She’s still a bit young for gumballs, so I made her the next best thing: a gumball machine cake!
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Gumball Machine Glass Merchandise Globes (24) Gumball Machine Plastic Merchandise Globe Parts (21) Coin Mechanisms for Gumball Vending Machines (63) OK Road Runner Spiral Gumball Machine Parts (4) Classic Gumball Machines (9) Pro-Line Gumball Vending Machines (11) Big Bubble Bulk Vending Machines (3) Mighty Mite Rocket Gumball Machines (7). Cut the gumball machine cookie and small round cookies out of a chilled sheet of cookie dough. Bake according to the recipe instructions and allow them to cool completely. Ice the top and the lower portion of a gumball machine cookie with pink flood consistency royal icing and a decorating tip 3. Use a scribe tool to help shape the icing.
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3 Slot Gumball Machine Coloring Pages
You can see Olive’s first birthday pastel galaxy birthday cake here and her second birthday Daniel Tiger birthday cake here. I always have such a blast making these for her!
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This year was a little different because now we have baby Sidney which makes it harder to find time to bake on the weekends. But I strapped little Sid to my chest in her Ergo Baby and went to work! She only lasted about 20 minutes before getting fussy and then I handed her off to dad (fortunately he was home during the birthday cake chaos). You can see a time-lapse video of me filling and frosting this cake with my little helpers here on Instagram.
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Since cookies are my specialty, I made a giant gumball machine cookie topper to complete the gumball theme on this cake. I used my cookie pop technique to hold it in place. The small gumballs inside the machine are royal icing transfers (watch the video to see how I made them). And for the cupcakes, I made small round gumball cookies to go on top of each one.
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The bright colors on the cookies and cake came from the Wilton Color Right set and I used this nifty cake comb to make the stripes (it took a while to get it right but now that I know how to use it I’m in love with it). See below for the full list of supplies and recipes.
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Here are the supplies I used to make this Gumball Machine Cake
- Homemade Yellow Cake Mix from I Am Baker
- Vanilla pudding for the filling (I used a boxed mix and added half & half instead of milk. I added 3/4 the amount of liquid that is called for to make it extra thick. It was so good, I will only make it like this from now on!)
- Crumbled Biscoff cookies for the filling
- American Buttercream Frosting from I Am Baker
- Blue & yellow food coloring to make teal frosting
- Decorating bags
- Large round decorating tip
- Large offset spatula for frosting the cake
- Gumball Machine Cookie Topper (see tutorial below)
- Rainbow sprinkles
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Materials
Commercial Gumball Machines For Sale
- Gumball machine template (below)
- Small round cookie cutter (around 1-1/2')
- Acrylic board or upside down sheet tray wrapped in parchment paper for gumball royal icing transfers
- Scribe tool
- Black color dust (I used Charcoal from Sugarpaste.com)
- Alcohol or any flavor extract – Alcohol or flavored extracts are used for painting on royal icing because they evaporate very quickly, which means that the liquid won’t dissolve the icing as you are applying the paint.
- Paint palette or small dish for mixing paint
Instructions
- Begin by piping gumballs on a piece of parchment paper over a template with flood consistency royal icing and a decorating tip 2.
- Use a scribe tool to help shape the icing.
- Add a reflection with white flood consistency icing. Allow the icing to dry completely.
- Remove the gumballs from the parchment paper and set them aside.
- Cut the gumball machine cookie and small round cookies out of a chilled sheet of cookie dough. Bake according to the recipe instructions and allow them to cool completely.
- Ice the top and the lower portion of a gumball machine cookie with pink flood consistency royal icing and a decorating tip 3.
- Use a scribe tool to help shape the icing. Allow the icing to dry for about an hour.
- Add a second layer on the top and bottom.
- Use the scribe tool to help shape the icing. Allow the icing to dry for another hour.
- Ice a plate on the front with white flood consistency royal icing and a decorating tip 2.
- Outline the glass with light blue flood consistency royal icing and a decorating tip 2.
- Fill in the top ⅓ of the glass with the blue icing.
- Fill in the rest of the space using all of the colors of the gumballs.
- Place the gumball transfers on the wet icing and allow the icing to dry completely.
- Pipe another layer on the lip on the bottom of the gumball machine.
- Pipe a coin slot and a handle with white flood consistency icing and a tip 2.
- Use the scribe tool to help shape the icing.
- Paint an opening on the bottom with pink food coloring mixed with vodka or any flavor extract, such as vanilla, lemon, or almond.
- Paint the plate with silver pearl dust.
- Paint the coin slot with black pearl dust.
- Bake a cookie stick in a scrap of cookie dough and allow it to cool.
- Attach it to the back of the gumball machine cookie using royal icing with the stick side facing in. Allow the icing to dry completely.
- Ice small round gumball cookies for cupcake toppers with flood consistency royal icing and a decorating tip 2.
- Use the scribe tool to help shape the icing.
- Pipe a reflection with white flood consistency icing and a tip 2.
- Place the cake topper into the cake just before serving.