Hi, I'm new to this fantastic forum and will be popping in often to gain more knowledge

I've been decorating cakes on and off for friends and fam for around 6yrs. I absolutely love doing it and still have a LOT to learn

I've been asked to make a stacked 3 tier cake for a friends daughters 16th. I've made 2 tier cakes in royal icing (pre made stuff) using butter cake but I aways find them a bit on the dry side. I am pretty much useless at making my own cakes, so usually do packet mixes.

My question is; Are sponge cakes too soft to use for this type of cake or would they be ok if supported properly with dowel? Which cake is commonly used for stacked tiered cakes, covered and decorated in royal icing?

TIA, Ally

You can use pretty much any cake for stacking, As long as you have the correct support system inplace, Im not sure who said it , but a lady here said you could stack jelly as long as its supported correctly.

Using packet mixes is fine, nothing to be ashamed of. icing cakes with Royal icing i think now is a relativly old fashioned thing to do, and its usually fruit cakes that are iced with it, not sponge, as it sets so hard and it can be super heavy on a sponge cake, where as fruit is sturdy and strong and stands up to it well. Have you considering using rolled icing or fondant as its also named?

Thank you for your info, very handy

Good to know that any cake can be used. I'll have a practice run with some sort of sponge. I was going to use dowel to support each layer, hoping that will be ok.

I had no idea royal icing was now considered old fashioned ... (I must confess I first learnt the royal icing technique back in high school some 20yrs ago and years later it's still stuck with me). Good thing i've started doing some research

I tried fondant once on a cake, and found it very soft and cracked more compared to the royal icing... i thought there was something wrong with it and stoped using it I'll have to give the fondant another go or perhaps even try some butter cream....

Thank you for your help

I would really persevere with fondant, find your self a good brand that works for you and you can get a flawless finish like royal , it does take practise, but so does anything i wouldnt so much call it old fashioned, that was problies the wrong term to use . . but it seems buttercream and fondant are the more popular choice nowadays, Youtube has some amazing videos on how to fondant, im sure with practise you will find your self suprised at the results you can get

Ally, it depends where you live I think. I am in Australia and our sponge cakes are very light and really only good for eating on that day, as they do tend to dry out. I use fondant on my cakes and would not dream of using a sponge to support the weight. However ............. I have found that different countries often use differing terms for their cakes.
In Australia we mostly use mudcakes with ganache and then fondant. Christmas time we use fruitcake covered in fondant (no ganache), whereas the 'traditional' method of a christmas cake is to cover in marzipan and then royal ice.
I'm not sure if any of this is of use to you, but hopefully a little bit interesting.
I think that working with royal icing is very challenging to get a nice finish, if you've mastered that you are doing well!

What I learned in culinary school was that overseas, they make fruit cakes, cover them in marzipan and then ice them in royal icing.

Those are the only cakes I've ever heard of being covered in royal.

Here in the Caribbean, we only use royal icing for fruitcakes. Buttercream goes great with sponge cakes, I would give it a try!

Thank you for your replies

I had a go last night using butter cream. The colour of it was a little on the yellow side, but it tasted great! I found it was a bit tricky to work with compared to the roll out icing. I might have a go at the fondant on mud cake next

Thanks

until cake central, i thought cake was cake, it was the same all over the world, kinda neat to think tgat different places have different cakes.