I'm making my own wedding cake......I know......crazy. It's a tilted six tier cake. What is the best support system to use for such an undertaking? I've heard many different things and my only wish is that it doesn't fall over.

Any help or extra advice would be greatly appreciated!

Amery

patience is key.........cooking is the lock [/b]

Did you look under tutorials?? There is a great one explaining how to support this cake....

good luck...

Here is the link to the article:
http://www.cakecentral.com/article1-Instructions-For-Building-A-Whimsical-Tilted-Cake.html

I have looked at that one......I was just wondering if anybody had any other hints or help

..if you do a search using the words "tilted" and "whimsy" you will find lots of previous discussions that might help you as well!

Ooops..BTW..Welcome to Cakecentral!!

Hi Amery!

First of all, congrats on your upcoming wedding!!

I attempted the tilted cake and have a few tips for you (there is a pic and a post somewhere on the site, i'll try to locate it). But first, let me ask, are you an experienced baker? Do you have different sized cake pans? The first step would be to aquire the pans you will need (try ebay). How many people will you be serving at your wedding?

OK, one thread is this one:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-10647.html

Now I am NO expert, but I did just do this cake recently and am familiar with the issues involved.

Support: You will need cake boards, a sharpened wooden dowel (long enough to go through the center of all of your tiers), and plastic straws, (not the bendy kind). The tutorial recommends other items, but I use the items I listed above in all of my tiered cakes and have never (knock on wood!) had a problem.

Will you be icing with fondant or buttercream?

When you push the wooden dowel through all of the cakes, doesnt it kind of squish the cakes?? or is there a pre-cut hole in all the cakes and then you just insert the dowel...thats the part i never understood

Like if it's a dummy cake the dowel will go right through, but with real cakes, it has to go through cake and then through a board...

I just did one in buttercream and found it WAY easier than fondant...plus I could make the corners sharper than my fondant "abilities" would allow. It was so easy to assemble it when still cold from the fridge.

But six tiers sounds really scary to me! I think 4 would be my max!!

Hello PerryStCakes!

Thanks for the interest! I've been making cakes for about six years, but my specialty is 3D cakes. I have done a 3 tiered cake before, but I thought for the wedding I would go all out. I have the pans I need......in fact I think pans have become my obsession over the years.

As far as the icing goes I'm going with the MMF with a buttercream scroll work over. Then I'm dusting it with the pearl powder and topping it off with a pulled sugar topper. (I work with hand blown glass in its various forms, so I'm very comfortable doing the pulled sugar.)

BTW Thanks for the welcome Mrs. Missey!

Amery

BTW......Love the Cake!!!

The one I have seen that I think would try if I ever get a attempt to try it is done more from illusion, than to actually have the tiers really tilted. They cut the cakes and angle them to get the look. They are supported as you would any stacked tiered cake.

Well, make sure you make good dense cakes, that is important. I personaly wouldn't go over three tiers with a really big cake, possilby 4 with a smaller one. The more tiers and the more filling in the tiers, the more issues you may have. I don't honestly think I would attempt a cake of this many tiers, but if I did, I would most definite go for the "Stress -free support system.
Honestly, I don't believe in stacking more than 4 tiers of any cakes. And if you are going to, definitely make a real practice cake of the same size and watch it to see what kinds of issues you might encounter with it.
Hugs Squirrelly

I've never gone over 5 tiers on a straight stacked cake. It was fondant covered, torted, and weighed a TON ! I had to transport it completed and I know I lost 2 years of my life worrying. To cut down on that type of stress on your big day,

My 2 suggestions are:

If you're committed to 6 tilted tiers, perhaps consider doing a Colette Peters type that includes several styrofoam dummies (2 or 3) in between actual cake layers. This lightens the load quite a bit but allows you to maximize the effects because the styro can be cut to to a razor thin edge.
If you need extra cake, you can have sheet cakes in the kitchen for serving.

My second suggestion would be that if you really want, or need, to have 6 actual stacked tiers, maybe you could stack on site. If this is feasible, a lot of the other issues diminish in importance.

Best wishes,
Rae

when you finish that cake please show some pics. It sound so hard to make. Especially that it is your wedding. Last thing you should be worrying is the cake. If you pull this through you are a supermaster cake decorator! Good luck!

If you want good info on building a cake, I would suggest one of Colette Peters latest books. Both her new books detail the construction of the odd shaped cakes with cake pan sizes, dowel placement, etc. Might be work looking into.

If you want good info on building a cake, I would suggest one of Colette Peters latest books. Both her new books detail the construction of the odd shaped cakes with cake pan sizes, dowel placement, etc. Might be work looking into.

I have the day off of the reception so assembly is going to be there.......my fiance wouldn't have it any other way. Good idea on making a practice cake. I was going to try it but I'll probably do a couple of practices since everyone is very concerned for the safety of me and the cake!LOL

I'll have to do the math........a styrofoam dummi.......it might just work.....