Hello friends:

I will be replicating this cake for a wedding at the end of December, I'm not sure what the best way to apply the fondant on this cake will be, I'm estimating the cake will be at least 10" tall.

I'm afraid the cake will be too tall to just cover it like a regular tier. Should I wrap the fondant around the cake and have a seam in the back? or should I do 4 panels? I'm afraid if I do panel the fondant will peel off!

How about the cilindrical part? how would you build that into the cake, carved or as a separte piece?

TIA!

I have no experience whatsoever, but this is my humble opinion... ricekrispies for the tower? Not to heavy and no need to carve....

I would think you could wrap it and put the seam on one of the corners. I think there's a tutorial either here or on youtube showing how to use a large piece of vinyl to wrap fondant around a cake in one piece. Maybe someone will know what I mean.

Here is a house cake that I just made. I did that in 4 panels because it was 12x12x15 and it worked great! I was scared of sagging and it was not an issue. Good luck can't wait to see then end result looks like a FUN cake! I love a good challenge!

Cover the castle part of the cake (square) in a layer of fondant. Then make you brick looking panels from fondant or gumpaste, one for each side, and glue those to the existing fondant coating. That will definately prevent it from slippage.

If the main cake is 10" it sounds like the tower only needs to be made from soup can cakes. Part of the tower is against the castle so I would wrap my fondant around it and then put the seam in towards the castle.

The nice thing about it is they are bricks, so if you want to line up the fondant you can add "bricks" to cover the seams on the corners and such. Look at some medieval brick work and do it like that... one big, one small, one big, one small... going up the entire corner.

Gosh I hope that description makes sense for the corners. And to make that tower floating like it is, I would use a wood board for a base and drill in a large dowel, then screw a circle the diameter of the tower to the dowel. Make your square castle and cut the corner that goes under the tower out, put the castle in place, trim the piece you chunked out and lide it under the dowel circle to reform the bottom corner of the castle (also hiding the dowel). That way the tower has a full support.
Might not be a bad idea to pre-drill a thin dowel hole and hammer a dowel into the circle for the tower so you can slide the cakes over it to support them from tipping.

Gosh I hope this helps more than confuses. I can picture it in my mind, but trying to type it all out is another story.

You know... I looked at the picture a little better. I have an easier way I think. Make the entire bottom part of the castle (an easy square made with a couple of layers. )

Make the top part of the castle, again the square shape. Make the tower seperately with soup can cakes.

Now to put it together you need a sturdy seperating piece... a good piece of stiff cardboard from a cake circle or some balsa wood or something. Looking down from the top view of the castle, cut the cardboard / wood in the shape of the upper castle part... a square with the circle off the corner. If it's wood cover it completely in fondant. Set it on the bottom square. Add the top square and the tower.

I'm trying to look at it as 2 different pieces... two different cakes. Make the entire top part one cake... again on a base the shape of the castle with tower. Then the bottom cake, just the square. Again add a layer of fondant over the whole thing. Add the brick texture to the fondant before wrapping it around the top castle, then wrap not cover. It'll be hard to spot a seam with the brick work. That way you secure the tower part in with the fondant. Add the details like windows and the bottom of the tower with royal icing.

Man, I have tons of ideas, I hope I'm explaining them well. You've got ME wanting to make a cake like that now!

I personally suggest you do the panels. After pre cutting your fondant, lay it on a cardboard and then lift the cardboard on an angle towards the side of the cake. The seams can be covered since the pictures has those brick like things on the corners.

Shelie, wow, your house cake is AMAZING btw.

I remember seeing some one doing long panels on a cake show and the fondant came off taking cake with it......I can't give expertice. I am not that good...but thought I would relay what I have seen. hth...would modeling chocolate in smaller areas at a time work? I heard Buddy(cake Boss) say you can rub the seams out with that where you can't with fondant, however it is heavier

If doing panels, they would need to be gumpaste. So it would be like putting rigid sides on the cake, glued to the fondant underneath. Nothing should slide on them.

On Ace of Cakes they did a building with fondant and it all slid off. So they came back and made panels of gumpaste to go around it. The also did a huge skyscraper like that too, the problem there was the big cake under it settled.

or make the turret out of gumpaste/sugarpaste/pastillage then carve a recess in the entire corner of the upper tier and top corner of the bottom tier to receive it...ice and cover the cakes in fondant...impress/create your brickwork...attach turret then add whatever that blockwork at the top is called, and the ridge around the center to include the turret.

Thank you guys! things look much easier now.

Wow, great ideas Darthburn! thank you so much!

I covered my cake in fondant then used a 50/50 mix of fondant/gumpaste to make panels that I attached to three sides of the cake like a facade. I purchased an impression mat for the texture. Then I used icing and covered the seams (although this pic is before the seams were covered).

Shannon - I love your cake!

I agree you should make the turret out of gumpaste/fondant roll the dough, texture it, rol the dough around a papertowel tube that has been wrapped in wax paper. let it dry and slide it off the tube - or leave it on for extra support.

I used pvc pipes for my cake. Although, they might be too heavy to attach to the side of a cake. Unless you can drill little holes in the side of the pipes and use wire (covered of course) to attach to the side of your cake.