This is my first tiered cake. It's a practice cake (I took it to work). My friend wants me to make her a bridal shower cake. The bottom cake is a 2 layer 12" white vanilla cake. The top cake is a 2 layer 8" caramel cake. I filled both cakes with whipped vanilla pudding, very nice and light. I used Wilton's BC frosting for the icing and the decorations. This was the first time I painted the inside of my piping bag with 2 different colors. I remember the instructor showing us this trick in the Wilton I course.
My top cake was a bit wobbly (transportation of the cake to work was such a scary event). I'm thinking it's because I made the rods about 1/8" to 1/4" higher than the height off the bottom cake. Are you supposed to make the rods flush with the bottom cake and have the top cake actually "touch" the bottom cake? I did ice both cakes before stacking them. That helped. And since the top cake wasn't touching the bottom cake (if that makes sense), I had to decorate the edge with big borders to hide the "gap".
I appreciate your ideas and thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Hanaa

I can't answer your question, but I love the shells and roses with the color striping. I did the clowns from the wilton course and the star border with the color striping, but haven't tried anything else yet.

Your writing is great too. I'm jealous of anyone who can write well on a cake!

Thank you

Right! The striped clown from class is what gave me this idea.

I make my dowels just a tad SHORTER than the cake- just a bit..maybe an 1/4 inch. That causes the upper tier to settle down on them just a little bit. It's important that every dowel be exatly the same length. I usually remove the first one and use it to mark the others. You can sprinkle powdered sugar in the area where the upper tier will go to make for a less-messy separation of the tiers.

Yes it should be flush with the bottom cake and the top one should sit on the bottom completely. But just not taller than the bottom cake. Everyone has their own technique;but I think this one won't work to make the dowels taller.

making the dowels longer makes it easier to remove the top layer but it definately wouldnt be stable to transport. My wilton instructor said to use parchment in between the layers for easy removal of top layer, must be cut the same size as top layer cakeboard. this is if you dont want to use the powered sugar.

Thank you for all your tips and ideas. I will definitely apply them on my next tiered cake (which is coming up pretty soon here).

For what it's worth. The theory behind making the dowels a little longer is for easy removal of the top cake. Also, I had this fear that if the cakes "touched", the frosting on the bottom cake would bulge in the area around the edge of the top cake. I guess that was an unnecessary fear.

Thanks again!

I make my dowls slight higher then I put one dowl, with sharpened tip down the middle to hold it in place.

When the the dowl hits the cake board of the top tier, I use my meat tenderizer (or a mallet would work) to gently tap it through the board then through the bottom tier.

I did not think it could go through the board, but it did!

That is a lovely cake- I agree about the writing- I can't write on cakes for the life of me! Your roses are beautiful, and the borders are really neat! As far as dowels, I have never used them- but I love the Wilton hidden pillars! (my 2 cents)

wow what a great cake!!!
I love the roses!!!

Keepe the good work!!!

Lorris