Free cake topper SVG files

Why these cut as one piece

A topper has to come off the mat whole and stand up in a cake, so nothing in these files is loose. The script letters overlap their neighbours, the two lines of a greeting overlap each other, and the dot of an i is joined to its letter by a short bridge. Each stake runs up into the solid foot of a letter or a shape, so the join is as wide as the stake itself.

The stakes are 4.5 to 5.2 mm wide in the file at its own 100 mm size. Cut at 150 mm wide they are 7 mm or more, which is stiff enough in 300 gsm card and comfortable in 3 mm wood or acrylic. Do not cut the lettered toppers under about 110 mm wide in card: the stakes drop under 5 mm and start to bend.

Sizes and materials

Match the topper to the cake: about 130 mm wide for a 15 cm cake, 150 mm for a 20 cm cake and 180 mm for a 25 cm cake. The stakes are drawn long enough to push 50 to 80 mm into the cake at those sizes, which holds a card topper upright in sponge and buttercream.

Glitter card of 250 to 300 gsm is the usual choice. If yours is thinner, cut the topper twice and glue the two back to back, or use the layered version, whose backing does the same job. For a laser, 3 mm birch ply or acrylic works at these sizes without changes. Card is not food safe on its own: wrap the stakes in tape or slide them into paper straws before they go into the cake.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions