AFinal question about stacking this bird cage cake (probably not final actually but I do apologise for keeping on about this!) I picked up a 6inch card today for the middle of the layers but I've never used one in the middle of a cake like that before. One side of the card is silver foil the other is just cardboard though. I've literally just thought to myself that if I put that in the middle of the layers and then ganache the whole cake isn't the cardboard going to go soggy when it absorbs moisture from the cake?

A@Maisie73 wherefore art thou??

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Good question, I'd like to know the answer to this too.

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You're not that far from me Kathy. I'm on one side of London and your on the other I believe :)

AI'm right down south in a town outside of Southampton so think I'm the odd one out lol ;-)

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Good Morning Sugarluva, you should have got the 3mm thick board which doesn't have the cardboard on the back. 3mm thick board is just like the drum but thinner.

AI think I'm in the middle of everyone then, in Oxfordshire :)

Sugarluva that's a good point! I think in the US they have cardboard rounds that are covered on both sides, but here the norm is foil on top and paper covered card on the bottom. I think you can buy the foil separately though, so if you wanted you could cover the bottom with that?

Thanks for all the lovely comments on the peony cake guys, I actually had an enquiry on thar cake yesterday! Soo glad a persevered with it!

That 3D software looks great! I sketch at the moment, but that looks like fun! :)

Hello FrenchieJo, welcome to the thread :)

Any word from Maisie yet? Hope everything is ok...

Morning all! I'm in Manchester 

That's great Mel hopefully you will have a lot more enquires the cake was beautiful.

I've always just covered the bottom of the board with parchment if I needed to cover it. I just cut to size and stick it the the board with a bit of buttercream. I don't sell my cakes though they're just for family.

I to hope everything is ok with Maisie and her little girl.

AGood morning fellow bakers!

No Mel, it is unusual for Maisie, she's a chatterbox like me, ha ha, do hope everything is ok with her, I miss her input on here.

Sugarluva, glad your not giving up on the birdcage, like I said before I didn't add boards but probably needed too, and if you dont do it right its such a waste of ingredients. When are you going to do it?

We are scattered around the UK aren't we? I think we should have a Cake Reunion like they do for Army, Navy and Airforce.

Well what cakes do people have lined up this week? Oddly enough apart from few boxes of cupcakes I dont have anything for week or two, I had flipping 5 last week, then nothing, strange how things go.

AJean, your minion doesnt have to be carved, surely its 3 6 inch cakes and a domed top, like the hemispherical I have from Lakeland, its the same structure as the birdcage I believe. Have a Google to see what comes up.

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Hi Jean, no it's not different. The 3mm thick boards have the white food safe paper at the back just like the 12mm drums. So it is fine to use. But like Barbara mentioned, if it doesn't need a board in the middle, then don't worry about it. :) Love to make a Minion one day!!! Did you see a YouTube video on making a standing up one. It's fabulous!!!:smile:

A* heads off to YouTube watch the standing minion *

I'm busy on a 60th cake this week, with an owl theme which I'm really excited about as I finally get to use my Bien owl cutters! And I'm going to start making the flowers for next weeks wedding cake! I'm the same though Nanny, mad weeks and then quiet ones! Glad of the rest weeks though sometimes, as I can catch up on other things (by which I mean spending hours on YouTube and craftsy etc LOL!)

ANatt, any news on that job interview you had?

Jean, I have all of those tins now, they will all serve a purpose in time I hope, could make a ladybird, hedgehog, dinosaur even. I did get them from Amazon which I paid delivery for, you can get a two part deal with from Amazon so I did think it was worth it.

A question for anyone really, to do with Claire Bowmans cake lace which I excitedly purchased the other day again from Amazon, what I'd like to know is can you buy any lace mats from anywhere or does it have to be the same make s the cake lace itself? I.e Claire Bowman?

AJean honestly dont go by what I did with my cage if you feel comfortable using a board in between then you do that, the advice I had about not needing one came from the cake shop I use where she makes the cakes and had made a few of them.

Have you googled it at all to find out whats the norm?

AHey cakey peeps, just reading through and I'm a little worried now the boards I'm going to use for my tiers have card board on the back too what's best to put under neath them them when securing onto lower cake ? Would it be ok to put parchment over cardboard back then royal icing onto fonadant on the lower cake to stick it ?

I really need to crack on with my trail two tier cake which will start tomorrow :-D

Nanny I haven't bought the cake lace yet but having no patience I tried making some from a recipe I found here on cc a couple of days ago. It didn't work so I tried pushing gumpaste into my lace mats as I had seen a new type of lace product that said it dries in 4 mins on you tube called Sweet lace express. They use what looks like gumpaste and push it along the mat. Anyway I tried but the gumpaste was to hard so for whatever reason I decided to try putting some glucose in it which I had just purchased from asda. This did work but was way to hard to do the good think I found though was that even today the gumpaste that I wrapped in parchment and then clingfilm is still flexible so have found a way to make delicate things in advance that will still be flexible enough to bend round a cake. If I could do this with cheap mats off ebay then I should imagine you could use any mat for the Claire Bowman cake lace.Here is a pic of the mats I got of ebay they were all about £2 each and the gumpaste I tried in them.

I don't see why you couldn't do that Jo as long as you secure the paper to the board it shouldn't be a problem.

AThanks for everyone's input on the cake board thing. I've not seen a 3mm board before, they all seem to be cake cards or drums. I did pick up 2 cards though just in case so perhaps I could just use both back to back and stick them together? Or use a bit of parchment paper underneath. It does seem to have a white back to it so do you think that is food safe? Like I said I've only ever used it between tiers of a cake before when they only really come into contact with fondant.

Ooh roxy I've been eyeing up those moulds on ebay I might get them. I picked up a gorgeous lace mould from Lakeland the other day too because it was so pretty though I have no idea how to use it or what type of paste to use in it haha. I need to do some playing with it after I've finished this birdcage cake.

Nanny I'm going to stack and ganache the cake tonight and cover tomorrow (hopefully I'll have time after work tonight). Fingers crossed it all goes well, so many things with this cake that I haven't done before. It is only for my mum's birthday on Friday though so I know she'll love it no matter what but I'd like it to be photograph able for future reference!

ANanny, I think you can use any mats with Cake lace mix, I haven't tried myself, but I think A Piece of Cake used it in the Doric mats and it worked perfectly!

Jo, if you are using boards to go between stacked tiers then the ones with foil top and paper backing are for that purpose, as the paper bit is food safe and will be sat on dry sugar paste :) I stick my tiers together with royal icing and that's fine as it sets up hard.

The worry about using these for the middle of a double barrel cake is the paper will be sat on wet buttercream and might go soggy x

Hi Roxy, im a wee bit confused...did you use the gumpaste you made to make those? With the glucose?

It worked well! I have been thinking about buying some mats from ebay 

Oooooh a cakey meet up? that could be fun! I also have come across some awful people but I have to say you ladies are lovely and have made me feel very welcome 

AOoh sticking 2 boards back to back! Why didn't I think of that lol?!?! :) Fab idea Sugarluva, I think that would def work best and also gives a tad more height and stability! :)

Maisie - I hope you are OK - am missing your wit and wisdom.

Siany - good to know I'm not on my own!

Jean - I did a trio of minions for my daughter and niece's joint 21st birthdays last year.  It was an emergency cake since I didn't find out until the last moment that they loved Minions.  I baked mine in fruit tins - Lol.  Not the best finish but good enough for a last minute plan.  I am really keen to know what you plan to do - I would love to know which one you are going to do - I hadn't even seen the film at that point.  I like Dave!

AThanks all, a trip down my fab cake Dec shop is minutes away. I am very naughty, please someone tell me to go back to work where I dont do any damage to my debit card ( oh yes, work beckons tomorrow, grrr).

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3232355/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Ha ha, these are my minion cupcakes and a GF minion cake I made recently, not standing up but this is the exact one she wanted.

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3232356/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

I love those Nanny - here was my effort - I must say, it does pay to watch the film.....wish I had done it earlier.

I didn't realise that they had different hairstyles!  Lol

Nanny and Dayscakes your minion cakes are fab 

Tiddy I add tylose to sugarpaste to make gumpaste, as it had been sitting wrapped for a few days it was quite stiff so I kneaded some glucose into it don't ask me why. I will be doing it again though as like I said it is still flexible, will be great for cutting boarders and things like that a few days in advance and still be able to wrap around the cake.

I wouldn't use it in those mats again as like I said it was hard work I will be buying the Claire Bowman cake lace as soon as I can.

Ahhh I see! Thanks for explaining (bit early for my brain) 

Just wondering if anyones tried the Lakeland Magic Icing? I was just browsing/spending again and it looks quite good  may have to get some!

This week I have  joint 70th wedding anniversary and 90th birthday cakes to do. Its for family and im thinking something pretty for the anniversary and something nautical for bamps birthday. An old navy lad