Wedding Cakes--Thickness Of Tiers And Supports?
Decorating By sweetchef Updated 22 Dec 2005 , 6:52pm by dodibug
I'm doing my first tiered cake next weekend. I was hoping the "wedding experts" could answer some dilemmas:
1. For birthday cakes, I usually cut 3 layers from a 3" tall sponge cake. I know tiered cakes usually have taller cakes. Do you use 2 or 3 layers baked in 2" pans? What do you guys suggest?
2. Also, I'm doing mousse fillings, so the cakes are heavy but small (10", 8", 6")--(Italian cream and chocolate cake w/chocolate mousse). For a stacked construction, would you suggest plastic plates and legs or just cardboard circles and dowels?
I'm doing my first tiered cake next weekend. I was hoping the "wedding experts" could answer some dilemmas:
1. For birthday cakes, I usually cut 3 layers from a 3" tall sponge cake. I know tiered cakes usually have taller cakes. Do you use 2 or 3 layers baked in 2" pans? What do you guys suggest?
2. Also, I'm doing mousse fillings, so the cakes are heavy but small (10", 8", 6")--(Italian cream and chocolate cake w/chocolate mousse). For a stacked construction, would you suggest plastic plates and legs or just cardboard circles and dowels?
Sweetchef
I would say that cardboard circles and dowels will be more than enough. I have posted before that i have started to use thick skewers and cardboard circles. If you have a look in my pictures and take a look at Carmen's cake, that was an 6" 8" and 10" cakes, supported by this method. The cakes were a lot heavier than what you are planning to do, as the middle tier was a mudcake and the top was a heavy buttercake filled with syrup, caramel and fresh cream
I hope this helps
Nati
PS: I have NEVER used plastic plates and legs on stacked cakes, only on cakes requiring pillars.
Nice cakes, Natii! My chocolate cakes are very moist and soak the circles when I ice them, so I was worried about the circles buckling or the icing cracking from bending. But I'll take your word for it! How many dowels do you use for a heavy cake? Will 6 of the 1/4-in-thick dowels be enough support (5 around and 1 in middle)?
Nice cakes, Natii! My chocolate cakes are very moist and soak the circles when I ice them, so I was worried about the circles buckling or the icing cracking from bending. But I'll take your word for it! How many dowels do you use for a heavy cake? Will 6 of the 1/4-in-thick dowels be enough support (5 around and 1 in middle)?
Hm Maybe the cake circles there are made differently to here. Ours are sealed with either plastic or a silver lining ontop, preventing them from soaking and dissintegrating. My cakes are usually very moist also, but i've never had this problem happen. I would say then, that you use the plastic ones, just to be safe. I am in Australia, and I've come to realise that the products we get vary a great deal from one country to the next. I would say stick to what you know to prevent a dissaster. If you were using the same circles as I do, i would say 6 dowels would be plenty of support.
Cheers
Nati
I usually cover both sides of my inner cake boards with foil (plain) on both sides so that should help with the soaking problem. Also, try dusting the area on the tiers that will have a cake stacked on them with a bit of powdered sugar to prevent the cake boards from sticking when the teirs are removed for serving. Also, are you stacking once you get to the site or prior to travel? That will make a difference in your game plan for stacking! I like my 2in pans others swear by their 3in pans. I make 2 2in layers per tier, filled.
ps-Check out some old posts on this subject and you will find a wealth of info. I usually find info I wasn't even thinking about when I look thru old posts! Good luck to you!
They sell 2 kinds of boards here--thin cardboard with no cover and the thick foam board covered with foil (for base). That's a great idea to cover them, and I found some old posts that suggest sticky contact paper. That might be better than foil because I am going to drill one long dowel through the middle of the entire cake for extra support. (I don't want to get any little foil fragments in the middle.) Sometimes, I glue 2 boards together for extra support, but that seems hard to puncture with the dowel. Thanks, you guys are really helping! I've still got a few days, I'll take all the advice I can get!
[quote="sweetchef"] I am going to drill one long dowel through the middle of the entire cake for extra support.[quote]
I have heard many people suggest doing this with your cakes.
By all means go ahead and do it, but i've never found the need to. Is this meant to give it extra support while transporting??
I transport my stacked cakes assembled and I've never had a problem. Then again I drive like a tortoise : )
Believe it or not I've had problems with single tiered cakes staying on their boards, but it happened because someone stopped suddenly in front of me without indicating. The cake ended up on the floor in the car. haha,luckily it was for family and we managed to salvage it, it was a 6 inch high cake for my nephew's christening (9 years ago) and we just discarded the part that was touching the carpet.
Nati
Yes, the dowel is for extra support and to prevent side-to-side shifting. I had heard about it from this site, TV, etc. It might be overkill for this small cake, but since it's my FIRST transport (and I'm transporting it assembled), I'm not taking any chances! I am a little worried about drilling it through. Let's hope I'm gentle enough!
I decided to cover regular cardboard cake boards with some gold foil scraps I had from another cake (finally a use for those scraps!). It's just a birthday cake, not a wedding cake, so I'm trying to keep it as easy and inexpensive as possible. It should be cute--a little girl's cake decorated in a princess theme (pink letters, scrolling flowers), complete with a toy tiara and wand on top. I'm also making tiara cookies (Decorated cookies are my specialty...but hopefully tiered cakes will be soon. They take the same effort to decorate but you can charge so much more!)
I fogot to add that I pre-make the holes in the center of the boards before I put the cake on them and then push the dowel thru once I get the cake together that way you don't have to worry about the little pieces of foil or whatever might cover the boards. I read a post once where the woman went to drive the dowel thru the cake and crushed/ruined the entire cake because she couldn't get thru the boards and they just buckled. 
Thanks for the warning!! That's why I was so concerned about the boards and their covering--I need them thick enough to hold and thin enough to puncture with the dowel. I have had nightmares about that...I get it all assembled, it looks good, I go to drill the last dowel and....POW...it collapses! I forgot that the decorators foil has a plastic backing, so I'm not worried about the foil bits anymore.
Do you just cut your hole with scissors (or maybe exacto knife?) about the size of a dime? Have you ever tried those white "tuff" boards with the plastic-like texture?
I have always used the regular cardboard rounds so I'm not sure about the others. If you feel like your cakes are particularly heavy you can use 2 boards together (look on the back at the markings and place one set of markings vertical and the other horizontal for a stronger set of boards) and dowel well. I have used scissors but the exacto knife sounds better. I guess I have made the holes bigger than a dime but smaller than a quarter! Do you also have some of that non-slip matting (you can buy it by the roll at Wal-Mart) to put the cake on in the car to prevent sliding? It's very helpful.
I do have one of those mats (I'd read that tip in some other posts on this site). I'm carrying the cake (on 14-in silver board) inside a 16 x 16 cardboard moving box (topped with plastic wrap). There's still a 2-inch gap around, so do you think I should put the mat under the base (inside the box) or under the whole box? I have a sedan, not an SUV, so I had to put some plywood over the back seat to create a more level surface from front to back. After I start getting more orders, I'm hoping to trade my car in for an SUV to make deliveries. But it's only 2 years old and already paid off, so I'm going to have to make due wih this car for now. Ahhh...the joys of business ownership.
Thanks so much to everyone for their help! The cake turned out great, and I even had to deliver it in the rain. At least it was cold (in Houston, I'm always battling the heat melting stuff). I posted pictures on my company website.
I made the dowels a tiny bit too tall (1/8 in), so the borders are huge to cover the gap. Oh well, lesson learned for next time. It was a kids' cake, so it just made it look kind of chunky and fun. It was a great learning experience, and I'm glad to have it done!
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