Shop

The first birthday cake gets photographed more than any cake that follows it, so the topper matters more than it should. This Wild One set is acrylic, which means the pieces stay rigid through the whole afternoon instead of drooping into the frosting an hour before anyone sings.

A wild one cake topper also earns its place twice over: once on the big cake, and once on the smash cake that will not survive the photos. Set it on a plain frosted bakery cake and the theme is done, no piped lettering and no custom order deposit. It carries the same phrase across your other wild one birthday decorations, so the cake table, the banner, and the invitations all say the same thing. Acrylic also survives being packed, driven, unpacked, and rearranged three times before the guests arrive, which paper never quite does. Lift the toppers off before you cut, keeping in mind that a one year old should meet the frosting and not the acrylic.

How big should a cake topper be? A cake topper is generally sized to sit inside the top edge of the cake rather than overhang it, which for a round cake means narrower than the cake’s diameter. Height is a look decision rather than a fit one, so taller toppers suit tiered or layered cakes and shorter ones suit single layers.