SPS instructions - Page 27

Thanks Leah, that's what I was thinking. i always punch holes in the bottoms of the boards - i have only forgotten 1x! what a pain

Leah, I am so glad you keep up with this thread!! I am doing a 12-10-8-6 wedding cake that has to be transported 100 miles, plus 6 remote 12 cakes. Could you please "O.K." this order for me. I will need 10-8-6 plates and 12 GC-4 legs. Is this correct. Do these come in different colors besides white and what is the name of the plates that I order. Much thanks to you for all your help with this.

Thank you for your help, and the tip about the coupon...I love coupons!!

Hi! I've always used dowels, but I've been wanting to use the separator plates system ... however, I have a quick question.... this question may sound crazy so I'll try to explain it the best I can...
I've found that some plates stick out the sides of the cake, so ... do you use 13" separator plate for under a 13" cake or would you use a 12" separator plate under a 13" cake?? And what is the best place to buy the separator plates from? Because do the sizes vary by brand? I'm thinking either Bakery Crafts or Wholesale sugar flowers? Please help? It's for a 7", 10", 13", and 16" cake ... and when I deliver, do you think I should assemble it at the venue or before delivery? thank you!!!!!!

Ok, thank you so much!!!!

Just went to page 15 and found it. I'm a visual person so this is brilliant as I couldn't work out how to do it before. Thanks!

I have got to get a life!!!! My SPS just arrived and I feel like it's Christmas morning.....seriously!!

Congrats Maryj,
You'll never go back to the other way

So I don't have to read through 27 pages.....so cakes are baked and filled and they are 4" high...now I put frosting on, doesn't that make them more than 4" and what wil happen when I start stacking? How in the world am I gonna know how much frosting to put on the cakes? I am a bit nervous about assembling this cake, anybody....PLEASE HELP!!!

I don't know if it was hallucinating (or wishful thinking) but is there an option for a premade 5" SPS column? I swear I read that in another thread when the talk came around to trying to saw off the 9" legs to 5" high.

am i crazy? or where can I find a 5" column.

So I read through all 27 pages and this question was asked numerous times with no answers to it.....I do not have an agbay leveler and I do use an icing tip after I crumb coat.....I got a bad feeling about this. And here a few days ago it seemed like Christmas morning

Actually you don't need an Agbay leveler to get your cakes the correct height. You just need a basic ruler and an idea of how much filling and icing you are going to add in. This is going to be long but I promise it's not that big of a deal. Just write it down the first time you do it and use that for future reference.

Let's say you bake cakes in 2 inch pans. For simplicity let's asssume you are not torting your cake. Just 2 layers of cake, icing in the middle and on top.

If you want to be consistent with your filling between the layers use either a tip or an open coupler to put the icing between the two layers. Your icer tip is fine if that's the amount you like to use. I use an open coupler if I'm not torting. That means my inside icing is just under 1/2 inch once it's all compressed. My top icing is going to be a little bit less than that generally so let's say 1/4 of inch. So on average I loose 3/4 of inch to icing and filling them my total cake height should be 3.25 inches, so I would need to level each of my cake layers to 1.625 inches (don't be that exact. I'd probably go for 1.5 inches each.

You don't have an Agbay, so the question is how do I get them to 1.5 inches every time. After your cakes are cool, take several cake circles (one size down from the cake size) and stack them up to 1/2 an inch. Tape them together and wrap them in something like Press and Seal. This will let you reuse them later.

Place the cake circles in the bottom of the pan and place your cooled cake on top. You cake is now sticking out 1/2 inch from the top of the pan. Using a long serrated knife, level your cake using the top of the pan as your guide. You now have 1.5 inch layer cake. Now repeat this with the other tier, fill and ice and you should be right at 4 inches.

One good tool to invest in, is a sewing ruler. These are the little rulers that have a slide on them. (You can get them at walmart). If you're afraid your tiers are to too tall or too short, once you have them frosted but not decorated or covered in fondant, check the height with a sewing rule. You can add frosting to adjust.

If you're doing fondant don't forget to allow for fondant height to be included in your calculation. Everyone stresses about this but if you can get it pretty close to 4 inches (a tiny bit over or under is fine) then it's not an issue. If there is a big gap between then it's a pain. But using the sewing ruler you should know before you put in the legs.