In Coleen Peter's book "Cakes to Dream on" she writes about another option to slanting a cake without cutting the cake. She says to make a wedge from styrofoam.

Has anyone tried this?

Thanks

No but I saw a show where she Was making one of The topsy-turvy cakes and her assistant said it was all an illusion. The cake was not crooked only the wedges between the cakes.

Cut the top of the styrofoam on an angle. I would suggest no greater than 45 degrees.

Personally, I don't like this method or the look, but we all have different opinions. I prefer the cake to give that appearance.
It is still an illusion when done with cake because the cakes actually sit into wells and are straight, just sculpted to look angled.
Hugs Squirrelly

I did that and the cake fell over 15 mins after I delivered it. the customer called back crying and I couldn't fix it. I refunded her the money. I will put the pic up in my folder so you can see before it crashed. i sed 3 large dowels all the way through the cake and the dowel snapped. I like the way someone on here posted directions if I ever have to again I would use this way.

Cakinqueen, just curious. Did you put dowels in each cake layer?

I borrowed Collette's book, Cakes to Dream On, from the library a few days ago so I'm reading through it now. For crooked cakes, she says to dowel each cake tier as you stack them as you would for any other normal cake. After all layers are doweled and stacked she then puts one long dowel through all the tiers. Also, she doesn't recommend to deliver in its completed state. If possible, assemble at the destination. Did you deliver the cake already assembled?

I just wanted to pass this on to you in case you didn't dowel each tier and in case you make another one in the future. I haven't made one of these cakes before so I just wanted to know for when/if I do try this style of cake.

Thank you. Yes I actually got the book at ices in New Orleans and was lucky enough to talk to Colette herself. I did dowel each layer and assembled at the site. I still have no idea what went wrong. It just scares me now.

Wow! You got to meet and talk to her...Exciting!! Your cake looks great! I hope you don't mind me saying this but one thing I see (to me) is that the wedge on the bottom layer doesn't look centered. Also, are you sure the cake collapsed--do you have proof? Hopefully the client wouldn't lie. It doesn't look unstable; maybe someone bumped the table? Well don't give up. Try again. Remember practice makes perfect. Just experiment for your family and friends. This peaks my curiosity so I will have to try a crooked cake soon. Did you make your own wedges?

When the Christmas/Holiday Cake Challenge was on Food Network, the guy that won put like a flexible pipe thru all the cake layers, and the outcome looked like the whole cake was bent and stayed that way...I think the ones we see in magazines and books are all dummies, and dummies are very easy to work with.. I don;t think it's the same way with real cakes.

I for one am not too crazy about this look...I prefer the "Normal" look. I just don't see how a cake can stay that way for hours and hours without the possibility of falling.. but that's just me...

It is a shame your lovely cake toppled, it was really pretty! I have done this cake by cutting out the wells and fitting the carved lopsided cakes into the wells. The first time, even though each cake was dowelled and well-boarded, I had an issue. The middle cake cracked at the dowelling. Another cake pal had this happen also, so I was watching the cake and caught it in time to repair.
I think my problem was that I used a marble cake mix and these are not the sturdiest of the mixes. I had doctored it to dense it up, but to no avail. In the method I use, the cakes were carved to look lopsided but they were actually level because of the well system. The cake also had centre dowels in it all the way through.
So whenever I have done this since, I make sure I use a really dense cake and I don't exaggerate the carving quite as much.
Sometimes it is a crap shoot, you are taking your chances with these cakes. I do think the method on this site is a good one though. I had followed the orignal method on this site.
The wedge method, well first of all, and this is just me, but I don't like the look of the wedges, I find they detract from the cake. But also, looking at your cake as an example, if you think about it, the cake weight is not balanced. So even though it is dowelled etc., there is still gravity pull sideways. To me, this means that the cake is destined eventually to slide, it really is a matter of time. Mainly because the weight of the cake on a sideways angle, against the dowelling, well the dowels are going to crack the cake, because the dowels are like trying to hold back a mudslide at an angle. If I was going with this wedge method, I would make a very minimal slant to the wedge to try to limit this gravity pull.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts on it. We have a local professional bakery that will not guarantee these cakes.
Hugs Squirrelly

It is really to bad your cake slid, it was a lovely looking cake. I must admit I have not tried this technic yet. The grandsons (6) are not intrested and I haven't had any interested. Maybe I can talk my grand daughter into this year. All I can say is try, try again.

I've been dying to try one of these cakes so this is great info. Thanks everyone!

cakingqueen - I think sweetbaker had a good point about the wedge being off-center on the first tier. It seems like all the weight of the wedges and other tiers of the cake are then concentrated to one side, rather than in the center. You might have better luck next time if you center all of your wedges and other tiers, rather than setting them off-center. I hope I'm making sense here! lol It just looks like the weight of it all was probably lopsided (the weight was all on one side, the cake doesn't look lopsided) and that might be what caused the collapse? But this is just an observation...lol. I could be so totally wrong.. lol The cake doesn't look unstable at all, but if all the weight was concentrated on one side, maybe all it took for it to collapse was a little bump of the table or someone might have tried to scoot it over a bit or something?

Regardless of all that...the cake looks great!!! Much better than I could do...lol. I've been wanting to try one of these for a year or so, but I'm too chicken. I wanted to thank you for posting the pic and sharing your method and experience with us. I've been sort of studying all the different methods there are to do them & figure out the best way. With my luck, I'll probably combine every method out there to do a cake like this and it will STILL collapse! lol

I want to thank everyone for their valuable input I agree that if it was centered it might have helped. I do have a think the cake was moved because it was in a different room when I got back there. However before I left I was very afriad it just didn't seem stable to me. I guess you live and learn.

PoodleDoodle
I bought CP's book also for construction help. I must say she doesn't really go into specifics enough but it makes you think about what your doing and sometimes that's a good thing. I did a tilt cake - see my pixs. I used styrofoam and it held wonderfully. I did put a dowel right down the center of the whole cake as a final support. This thing wasn't going anywhere by the time I was finished. Have fun with it.

Love that cake, BJ! It's been in my favorites ever since I first joined! lol It's great

Me too and I like the fact you don't see the wedges so it looks like the other type of tilted cakes.
Hugs Squirrelly

I ve always wondered if we can cook the pan tilted in the oven and let the cake cook while elevated from one side to let it cook on an angle, could that work.

Well, here it is. I wasn't too pleased with the icing but everyone else was crazy about it. Kept getting "How'd you do that" comments. When my son saw it he yelled "Mom, your cake is sliding off". I learned a lot and it was great fun. Thanks for all the comments.

Hi ~ I pretty new here. Here is my thought on baking the cakes at a slant. I think one side would bake quicker than the other and be dried out before the deeper side finished baking. I think it's would be easier just to slice a small wedge off the top, carve out enough cake to fit the next layer in. I'm still learing a lot and rarely get to do cakes but this method seems to work best.

I've only done one slant cake so far and I used the "well method". It's in my photos.

It was very, very stable as I boarded and doweled the whole thing, but I was FREAKING out that it was going to slide. Apparetnly the illusion was a success since it made me so nervous.

Personally, I don't particularly care for the styrofoam method--but that's just me.

Lisa

How do you go about serving/cutting these cakes. Do you take each tier off to slice, or just slice until you get to the styrofaom? I have been wanting to try this, but it worries me. Flat cakes stress me out enough

PoodleDoodle, your cake looks lovely! I really love it, so pretty, the colours and the decorations, great job kiddo! I find that there is a lot less worry with doing two tiered in these cakes too, I must admit! And most of the time there is more than enough cake with the two tiers too. Sometimes it is that third tier that creates an issue with the middle tier if there is going to be a problem. Your cake is wonderful!
Hugs Squirrelly

Cake 47
You do have a good point, but that happens with all cakes where the edges and outer layers are cooked but the center and deeper parts are still in the process. I don't worry about a cake being a little dry because I always soak my cakes with syrup (not dripping), I use a spray bottle and voila!

Hi cuillere!!!
Your spray bottle is a good idea to moisten a cake.
This is great, I get help at this site without having to ask for it!!!
I use a pastry brush to apply flavors and/or syrups but your spray sounds so much easier.
Maybe some day if I get brave enough, I'll try baking a cake at a slant. Interesting anyway!!
Thanks ~
cakes47

When Colette does her topsy-turvy cakes. The styrofoam appears to be about 2 inches or so smaller in diameter than the cake below. I think that also adds the much needed stability to the cake. I would think if too much of the cake is hanging over the styrofoam and only being held by a dowel plus factoring the angle of the styrofoam then it could be a recipe for disaster (no pun intended).

I have not made any of these cakes before. But when I do, I think the styrofoam method will be my method of choice. I like the fact that you don't have to sacrifice the amount of servings to achieve the look. Plus you can decorate the styrofoam to make it look like cake.

PoodleDoodle - Your cake looks great! I love all of the squiggly decorations..and the big candle in the top really fits it well! You pulled it off!

I have been asked to do one of these as a wedding cake. The bride wants tiers of Fruit Cake, Chocolate Biscuit Cake and Carrot Cake.

The chocolate biscuit cake will be a doddle because I'll be able to mould the top of it before it sets instead of having to cut out a slant, but I'm not sure about the fruit cake, I'll have to bake two and try and dowel them together before I cut out the Slant. Anybody done this with a fruit cake?

Also which do you think would be most stable for the bottom tier, fruit or chocolate biscuit? The carrot cake is the top. 12",10" & 8" cakes.

PoodleDoodle,

Your cake is fabulous! Did you use fondant or gumpaste for the scrolls and ropes?