Burn Away Custom Printed Cake Topper

Burn-Away Cakes are HOT (pun intended). Bakers who use burn-away techniques are wowing customers by providing them with the ability to do cake "reveals" that are visually stunning and impressive. This makes for impressive cake gender reveal announcements, surprise marriage proposals, and so much more! Check out some creative ideas by our very own InkEdibles Creators below.

Want to see your creations featured such as the above? Upload your content to our Creator's Gallery

The way the "burn away cake" concept works is simple:

1. The top of the cake has a printed edible image (this is the "burn away" image, or TOP image)
2. When this image is lit on fire with a match or long candle lighter, it does what its name implies - it burns away, revealing another image beneath it
3. The image beneath that is revealed (the BOTTOM image), remains in place, and is essentially the "reveal"

As a baker or cake decorator, you would need to leave space (create a layer that provides height) between the TOP and BOTTOM image, so that the 2 images are not touching. This can be done with icing, buttercream, or in other creative baking ways that gives some space/layers between the TOP and BOTTOM images.

It is important to note that burning the top edible image of the cake can of course be dangerous and caution should be exercised and expressed to clients or customers. It is also not something kids should be doing.
DO NOT BURN near other flammable objects such as table cloths, curtains, papers, towels, etc or near windy areas. Exercise Caution.

The items featured on this page are for "ready to use", pre-printed edible images, all you need to do is select the TOP or BOTTOM of your choice, upload your image, and checkout. You can order a combination of TOPS and BOTTOMS, some may be looking to make cakes with only a TOP. Or with 2 TOPS, or a combination of TOP and BOTTOM.

Here is some more information about the types of edible papers used (helpful also if you are looking to order just plain sheets to print your own edible images):

There are a variety of edible image papers / sheets on the market, ranging from rice paper, to wafer paper, to frosting sheets, icing sheets, fondant sheets, and more. Some are similar in ingredients to others, while some have very different ingredients to others. Some may also have different names for a "similar" product. So it can get confusing. At InkEdibles, we make it simple - we offer 2 main types of edible papers, what we refer to as: wafer paper (use this as a TOP), and frosting sheets (also referred to as icing sheets, use our PREMIUM or ARTISAN frosting sheets as the BOTTOM). The wafer paper is flammable as it contains oil. Therefore, when you select the TOP image, you will be receiving our custom printed wafer paper. When you select a BOTTOM image, you will be receiving our custom printed ARTISAN frosting sheet. Make sure you use the correct sheets in the correct location - wafer paper goes on TOP, and frosting sheet goes on the BOTTOM. And make sure you design your cake in a way to allow for space between the TOP and BOTTOM layers, so they are not touching one another. You should expect burn fragments to fall from the TOP wafer paper image to the BOTTOM frosting sheet image, but those can be removed.

How to order your custom printed burn-away cake toppers:

• Select a TOP LAYER size that you would like, and upload your image that you would like printed on this TOP LAYER. Add it to the shopping cart. This is the wafer sheet, the BURN AWAY layer.
• Come back to this page and select a BOTTOM LAYER size that you would like, upload your image that you would like printed on this BOTTOM LAYER. Add it to the shopping cart. This is the frosting sheet, the REVEAL layer.

You could technically do more than 1 TOP LAYER (such as if you want to do a progression of reveals, for example 3 layers whereby the top 2 layers are BURN AWAY and the 3rd is the resulting reveal layer, in which case you can order 2 TOP LAYERS and 1 BOTTOM LAYER, but more advanced practice and caution is advised if you want to try this and always ensure there is space between all layers and keep in mind that when the first TOP burns it could drop burn fragments that light the 2nd TOP layer).