" Wedding cake fell apart!!! I'm sick!!!" - Page 3

Your cake was beautiful and I am so sorry it fell, however, it was a wonderful idea to have decorated the sheet cake to match the wedding cake design. I have taught cake decorating for many years and I would never transport any cake over 2 tiers stacked together. I always stack 2 tiers together and then any other tiers together in sets of 2 and put a dowel off center of each set of 2 to hold them together. When I get to the venue then I assemble all the tiers and then take a sharpened wooden dowel and run it down the center of all the tiers. I keep a small lightweight hammer to use only for my cakes and I use a small hand pruner to cut the wooden dowels. I got the hand pruner from "Big Lots" close out store for about $5.00 and they stay with all my cake stuff so they are used strictly for that purpose. You might want to either use double cardboard separators between each tier or foam board which works great also. Unfortunately, you learned an expensive lesson, but we all have at some time. Don't give up, your cake looked beautiful and I'll bet it tasted heavenly!!!!

evelyn

Can somebody tell me what SPS and SFS stands for?

Lomikesa

sfs is stress free support, you can get it from earlene's don't know the other sorry.

Julia

(SPS: single plate support system)

I had a cake tragedy like yours - 5 tiered basketweave fell over in route - and I can definitely relate to your pain!!! and frustration!!! We ruined their most important day! Or at least I felt that way for a couple of weeks....

I'm interested in the difference between the SFS and SPS systems though because of the cost. I don't make that many larger tiered cakes to warrant the extra cost of the SFS system but will definitely consider purchasing it if it works better than the SPS system.

I'm sorry this happened to you!!!! A full refund will make you feel a little better - it did for me.

so sorry to hear this happened...and i think its just as devastating for us as it is for the couple who bought and paid for it!!!! i have had this happened to me before too...i was so upset for couple at first and as soon as i moved passed that i was so upset for me....a weeks worth of work down the drain!! all my hard work....and truely disappointed that this even happened...horrific!!! time heals all and you are right lesson learned....and look at the bright side...they still had cake to serve!!! things could always be worse!!!! beautiful cake by the way!!!!!!

SFS (Stress Free Support) is made up of internal stainless steel separator plates that has stainless steel rods on it that you thread your legs onto. A big advantage to this system is that you can adjust your legs to exactly the height of the cake. I believe each leg has about 3/4" of an inch or so adjustment, but there are different lengths available.
But the negative side to this system is that it is very expensive, and you need to charge a hefty deposit to get it back. Some brides look at the upfront cost when comparing bakers, and even though they will get the deposit back upon return, they don't want to pay that cost initially. The stainless steel rings are open in the middle if you still want to drive a middle dowel through the cake but I know many decorators who just use shelf liner between the tiers to keep them in place with no middle dowel.

SPS (Single Plate Support) is made of internal hard plastic plates that you attach the plastic legs too (they are a good tight fit). It is relatively cheap and I charge a deposit to get the legs and plates back. I have reused the plates over and over but the legs come back cracked every once and a while due to how the person pulls them out of the plate. You can charge and equipment fee to cover it, build it into the pricing of your cake, or get a deposit. The nice thing about this system is that there is a little peg in the middle of the plate that holds the upper tiers board in place (punch a hole in the board).

Bravo vdrsolo!!!!! Thank you for clearing up my questions!!

Beautiful cake......So sorry it had to happen.......but a great save. a big "HUG" for you....That is everyone's nightmare....

I travel with each layer separate and still worry about layers slipping. I use the plate and connecting dowels, cut to height of the cake.

FYI, as long as your cake board under your cake is strong (doubled/tripled boards, foamcore, etc), you can use the round plates under the square cakes.

I bought my ML pans through www.countrykitchensa.com, they have a discount program if you spend more than $100.00

I think I read somewhere that Fat daddio's corners LOOK rounded, but they actually bake up square - I may be wrong, but I'm sure that's what I read. Can't you do a test 6in layer and see?