How To Make An Edible Iron Throne Cake Topper

Aug 6

Aug 6 How To Make An Edible Iron Throne Cake Topper

I must admit, this isn’t the first time I’ve made an Iron Throne cake topper. Two years ago I asked my dad what I should make for my sister’s birthday cake and he suggested ‘something Game of Thrones-y’. At this point, I had never watched the show or read the books so I took to Google. There were some bleeding tree cakes, a few dragons and then this chair made of swords. When I described it like this to my dad, I kid you not, he started a 20 minute rant explaining to me that that ‘chair made of swords’ was actually the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, forged from 1000 swords surrendered to Aegon the Conquerer by the fiery breath of Balerion the Black Dread, fiercest dragon in history. I’m ashamed to say my response was a rather exaggerated eye roll. Shame. Shame. Shame.

I made my chair of swords and was pretty chuffed with myself and bless her, my sister was so happy she kept it for two years. It was gross by the end of it and the smell, oh the smell! Drastic measures had to be taken but I knew she wouldn’t give it up easily, it called for a bribe. If she would let me bin the old one (and the plate covered in old, oozing icing) I would make her a new one and so Game of Thrones month at Icing Insight was born. From the cake, it escalated to homemade gifts and banners and cookies and crowns, oh my! FYI, she loved it all hooray!

Anyway, let’s get cracking!

What You'll Need

3 cups of puffed rice
200g chocolate (any kind)
1 egg white
2 cups icing sugar
500g grey fondant
Tsp Tylose

Method

Mix the fondant with 1 tsp of tylose and a knob of butter, this should make it much easier to handle and dry slightly harder
With small pieces of fondant make 40-50 small sword shafts. These should be 1 ½ inches long and ¼ inch deep with pointed ends. By making them slightly deeper than usual they'll be more stable
Once shaped transfer to a lined baking tray. dusted with icing sugar. Leave in a cool, dry place until hard
For this throne, 26 swords were used but I broke about 15 in the process so back up is good
Now for the sword handles. These look really cool but they are really simple. Roll out two small fondant ropes. Press down the end of one and attach the other horizontally across with a little vodka. Use a knife to score some texture into the vertical one and bend the edges of the horizontal ones. Finally, roll a little ball and attach this to the end with vodka then use the end of a paintbrush to push an indent into the middle

I used around 35 handles but again I broke about 5 or 6 in the process so its good to make a few extra. Set aside on the lined tray until hard
For the base melt 2/3 of the chocolate over a bain-marie
Once melted, mix in the puffed rice until fully combined. Leave to cool for 5 mins
While waiting cut a piece of parchment paper to fit a baking tray/board
On the non-shiny side mark out a guide in dark pencil in the shape of the throne
Place the parchment paper on the tray shiny side up
Fill the pencilled guides with chocolate rice mix building the height until you have the correct shape for the throne. It's easiest to do this in stages, allowing one layer to harden in the fridge for a few minutes before adding more

When you have the shape built up place the tray in the fridge to harden for 15 mins
Using a sharp knife carefully shave down any rough edges and even the sides
Melt the remaining chocolate
Remove the tray from the fridge and use some of the melted chocolate to attach the 2 pieces like this. Chill in the fridge for 5 mins

Remove from the fridge and spoon the melted chocolate all over, filling in all the little cracks to strengthen the structure. I used grey chocolate as you can see in the photo but I later realised any chocolate will do as none of it can be seen when covered in swords. Return to the fridge to chill
In a clean bowl whisk the egg white until it is fluffy but not stiff
Remove half of the egg white and gradually add the icing sugar, whisking until fully combined
Mix in black food colouring until you have a similar dark grey to the swords you made earlier and transfer to a piping bag with a small hole in the bottom. This will be the glue that holds the fondant and throne together
Roll pieces of the fondant to 2mm thickness and cut sword shapes roughly 5cm long, no handles just the shaft (hahahah, shaft). Tailor the length to the section you are covering as you go
Attach the shafts to the throne with the bagged icing to cover the chocolate base. Don’t worry too much about precision at this stage, you’re going to build on top with more details just make sure to attach them while they are still soft and pliable

Continue until no chocolate is visible
Back to the swords, you left to dry earlier. If they aren’t hard yet and you need to speed up the process you can dry them faster in the oven. Warm the oven slightly and then switch it off before placing the tray inside
When fully dry attach the swords with the bagged icing around the back panel of the throne like this

When dry it’s time to add the decorative swords so grab your handles and fondant
Roll out the fondant as before and cut more shafts (never getting tired of that), attach these to the throne pointing down and centre around the top leaving space at the top to attach the handles
Attach the handles being careful to line them up with the shafts so they look like a complete sword
Continue in layers moving down closer to centre until the throne back is covered

For the sides and seat, I attached two swords each that crisscrossed to cover a larger area without looking too busy

Finally attach two swords pointing down from each arm of the throne
Leave to dry and you’re done!

Quick notes: any time you aren’t using the piped icing seal the hole with cling film and store in the fridge. Whenever you aren’t using the fondant keep it tightly wrapped in clingfilm to stop it drying out and finally don’t leave the throne near any hot or steamy kitchen appliances. At one point, I absent-mindedly left it to dry next to the kettle and came back to find all the iconic sword points melted off. Not even kidding, I almost cried and had to chip them all off and start again.

Additional Tips and Tricks

To achieve a shiny finish, mix 1 part syrup with 1 part vodka and lightly brush over the throne, take extra care on the pointed sword ends to stop them breaking off. Apply sparingly
If something does fall or break off don’t panic! Re-attach it with a small piece of soft fondant. Quickly make a small handle and use the new handle to hide the join