I will be making my very first beer mug cake this weekend and I was hoping to get some tips from fellow ccr's. I am planning on making the mug 8" round. I am wondering how many layers to make it. I was thinking 4. Do I need to dowel this cake if I do 4 or 5 layers? And how can I transport it safely because it will be so tall for the width of it! Also, I am thinking I will have to cover it in buttercream. Not sure If fondant will work, I have had trouble with "horizontal fondant" before! Last question I promise!!!! How to I make the handle!?!? I'm thinking if I make it out of gumpaste or fondant it will just be too darn heavy and the cake will not support it! Just very nervous about this one. Making it for a very important person in our town (the mayor)

Thank you all for your help!!!

If you make it 4 layers, it will only be about 9" tall, but beer mugs are taller than they are wide. How about 6 layers - or, if size doesn't matter, make it 4 layers, but with 6" cakes. I don't know what to tell you about covering it, but you might make the handle out of RKTs iced in royal icing (to smooth out the bumps) and then covered in a thin layer of gumpaste. It wouldn't weigh as much that way. Sounds like a fun project!

I have made this cake 3 times. I use 4- 6 inch cakes torted and filled. I also always dowel this cake because of the transport. I have used buttercream all three times to cover it and usually make the handle out of gum paste with long skewers in each end because I have had it pull away from the cake. I tried rct but it fell apart. Here is a link to one, it's not perfect but hopefully it helps!

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1906447

Cool cake, craise79! Are you actually trying to tell me that that's buttercream? I'm SO impressed! Good to know about the RKT handle and that the gumpaste one wasn't too heavy!

I did my first one awhile back and I had a fit with it!!! First let me say I was very new to cakes, and I do NOT work with fondant nor do I like it...lol.

My cake is all bc, the only thing fondant is the handle, which didnt set firm, I forgot the tylose or gumpaste but it came out ok...and the tag with the name.

4- 6" cakes, with the top one I baked some cake in a pyrex bowl to give it the dome effect, I airbrushed it, and I did labels on my printer out of icing sheets. There's a dowel through the beer can, with the top having a notce to hold the beer can right on the lip of the can, covered in fondant....

Which I knew then what I do now...would have been alot better! lol Oh well it was for family and you would have thought I was holding the world on my shoulders...lol

This cake must feed 40 people. I'm afraid that if I do the (4) 6" cakes it will not feed enough people.. I'm also afraid if I do (6) 8" cakes there will be too many servings left over! What do you all think? I might try the RKT covered in gumpaste. Hopefully it the handle will not pull away from the cake. And I have decided to ice it in buttercream,

Only question I still have is about the dowels... do I need to separate 2 of the layers with cardboard? and dowel it? or can I just push a dowel down the center of the cake.

I made a 4 layer beer mug with 6 inch rounds and thought it had just the right proportions. Maybe you could add cupcakes to make up for more servings? You could make them like mini beer mugs by creating a mini handle on the cupcake liner perhaps.

I had a carboard round in between the 2nd and 3rd layers, but being new to this...I don't think I doweled the bottom 2 layers. If I did, I didn't do it right because the next morning the cake had sagged severely and was stunted for sure. Awful!

I had a solid gumpaste handle with skewers sticking out of it and overnight it fell out of the cake and refused to stay in after that. I would go as light as possible if you can. Maybe a candy clay handle with longer skewers would work better?

Good luck!

I don't know what to suggest about the sizes of the layers - six 6" rounds would give you 36 servings, but it might be too tall for the diameter. I would definitely put a cardboard round in every 2 layers and put straws or dowels in all but the top 2. Also, the handle might stay in better if the skewers are as long as possible and if you coat them with melted chocolate just before you put them into the cake. Also, I'd say prop the handle up with something until just before delivering/serving it so it won't sag if you have to leave it overnight. That would also give the chocolate a nice lot of time to dry.

I also like the idea of small cup cakes around the mug to match the beer mug, or even a small cake that is a pizza, you know beer and pizza...to make up the difference in the amount of cake slices needed.

That's it, 2txmedics! I was trying to think of something that she could do to make up the servings, but which went with the beer mug theme. Pizza is perfect! Would you be up for that, alicialee?