Layered Birthday Cake Card With Paper Candles

A birthday cake card is built almost entirely from rectangles, which makes it one of the friendliest layered designs to cut by hand. Three paper tiers stack up from wide to narrow, white icing strips with a wavy edge sit on top of each tier, and three thin candles finish the cake. The only freehand cutting is the icing and the flames, and both are meant to look a little uneven.

The measurements below fit a standard A2 card, 4.25 x 5.5 in (10.8 x 14 cm). Treat them as suggestions: the cake still reads as a cake as long as each tier is clearly narrower than the one under it.

What you need

• One A2 side-fold card base in white: a piece 8.5 x 5.5 in (21.6 x 14 cm), scored at 4.25 in (10.8 cm). Half a US letter sheet gives exactly this; half an A4 sheet gives a very similar card.
• A white panel, 3.75 x 5 in (9.5 x 12.7 cm), and an optional colored mat, 4 x 5.25 in (10.2 x 13.3 cm)
• Scraps of lighter cardstock in yellow, mint, pink, white and blue
• Scissors, a ruler, a pencil and an eraser
• A glue stick or liquid glue
• Foam squares, or two small squares of scrap cardstock glued into a stack
• A hole punch for confetti dots (or cut small dots by hand)

Heavier cardstock, roughly 216-300 gsm, suits the base. The cake pieces are easier to cut from lighter cardstock, roughly 160-220 gsm.

Cut the cake pieces

Cut the straight pieces first, with a paper trimmer or with a ruler, pencil and scissors. If narrow strips keep coming out tapered, the guide to cutting cardstock cleanly explains how to keep both edges parallel.

Piece	Color	How many	Suggested size
Bottom tier	Yellow	1	2.5 x 3/4 in (6.4 x 1.9 cm)
Middle tier	Mint	1	2 x 3/4 in (5 x 1.9 cm)
Top tier	Pink	1	1.5 x 3/4 in (3.8 x 1.9 cm)
Icing strips	White	3	As wide as each tier, about 3/8 in (1 cm) tall
Cake stand	Blue	1	3 x 1/4 in (7.6 x 0.6 cm)
Candles	Any color	3	1/8 x 3/4 in (0.3 x 1.9 cm)
Flames	Yellow	3	About 1/4 in (6 mm) tall

Each tier is 1/2 in (1.3 cm) narrower than the one below, which leaves an even step of 1/4 in (6 mm) on each side. Uneven steps make the cake look as if it is leaning. For the flames, cut a tiny teardrop with a rounded bottom and a pointed top.

Cut wavy icing without a special tool

Decorative-edge scissors are not needed. Cut each icing strip as a plain rectangle first, the same width as its tier. Turn it over and, on the back, draw a row of bumps in pencil along one long edge, like a line of shallow letter U shapes. Three or four bumps are enough for the bottom tier, two or three for the top.

Cut slowly along the line, turning the paper into the scissors instead of swinging the scissors around each curve. The other long edge stays straight, because it lines up with the top of the tier. Pencil left on the back is hidden once the strip is glued down.

Make the bumps different widths and depths on purpose. Icing that drips unevenly looks natural, while a regular scallop draws attention to the one bump that came out wrong.

Assemble the cake

Work on the loose white panel, not on the folded card. A mistake then costs one small panel instead of a whole card base.

1. Mark the baseline. Draw a faint pencil line about 3/4 in (2 cm) up from the bottom edge of the panel, and a tiny tick at the center of its width. The cake stand will sit on this line, and every piece is centered on the tick.
2. Glue the bottom tier. Place the yellow tier 1/4 in (6 mm) above the line, leaving that gap for the stand.
3. Glue the top tier. Leave a space of 3/4 in (1.9 cm) above the yellow tier for the middle one and glue the pink tier flat.
4. Raise the middle tier. Put foam squares near both ends of the back of the mint tier and press it into the gap. Because it sits higher than its neighbors, it casts a small shadow that separates the three tiers.
5. Add the icing and the stand. Glue a white strip along the top of each tier, straight edge up, then glue the blue stand strip on the pencil line so it touches the bottom tier.
6. Add the candles and flames. Space the three candles evenly along the top of the pink tier, standing upright, and glue a flame at the tip of each one.
7. Scatter the confetti. Glue five to nine dots in mixed colors in the space above the flames.

Erase the visible ends of the pencil line once the glue has dried, since rubbing over wet glue smears it into a gray mark.

Mount the panel and place the greeting

Glue the finished panel to the mat, if you are using one, and the mat to the card front. With the sizes above, each layer shows a border of 1/8 in (3 mm) all around; the guide to layering cardstock covers how to keep those borders even.

The cake fills most of the panel, so the simplest place for a handwritten greeting is inside the card. If you would rather have it on the front, cut the tiers 5/8 in (1.6 cm) tall instead and write in the band of white space beneath the stand. Write in pencil first, then go over it with a fine-tip pen.

Common problems and fixes

• The cake leans. The tiers were centered by eye. Use the center tick on the panel.
• Candles curl or buckle. Very thin strips soak up liquid glue and warp. Use a glue stick instead.
• The raised tier sags at one end. Foam was placed only in the middle. The guide to dimensional cards explains where raised layers need support.

Variations to try

Change the palette and the same cake suits a different person: kraft tiers with white icing look rustic, while three shades of one color give a calmer version. For less cutting, make a single wide tier with one icing strip.

The paper balloon birthday card uses the same base, mat and panel sizes, so the two can be cut side by side.