Calling UK bakers-what do you use for support??

Hi
What happened to the cake? Did one tier just slide off? To connect them all you need a thick wooden pole about an inch to an inch and a half depending on cake sizes. Sharpen the end to a fine point and hammer it right through the cake to the base board. If I was doing anything over 3 tiers I'd try to assemble on site. Hth

I just use single thick boards and I buy the piles from b&q but I think you'd get them from any shop like that. It's useful if you have a small rubber mallet and just sharpen the pole super pointy. It should go though.

I use bubble tea straws and I buy them from ebay for each tier and then wooden dowels for the combined tiers to hold them together.

Point to note is dont over or under dowel and ensure they are all level before you put the cake on, use spirit level to check if possible.

yup I buy the bubble tea straws from ebay as well. The UK sucks as far as cake decorating supplies is concerned. I'm already planning a trip the states at some point as a business trip to buy in some of the tools that I know I need.

I agree with all the comments about the Uk regarding supplies. I was saying this just last week. All the US cakers talk about Michaels. I'd love something like that here. Even when I google suppliers, all the sites come up from the US and none of them ship outside of there. Its so frustrating

I have an Agbay (MOST treasured piece of equipment!) You can order directly and have it shipped to the UK.

We regards to a previous comment re dowels from B&Q - these are not food safe and shouldn't be used!


OP - I'm so sorry you had a cake accident. Can you talk us through exactly what you did? Perhaps we could spot an area where we might be able to advise? What dowels? How many? What was the cake filled with / covered in? How did you attach the tiers to each other, etc.

Suzanne x

Did you attach the top of one tier to the bottom of the next tier (ie royal ice the top of tier then place next tier atop so the card board adheres to the cake below via the royal ice glue?)

Firstly, you can buy wooden dowels from on-line cake supplies place - eg

http://www.almondart.com/shop/Dowels.html#aW1009

DEFINITELY not enough support. I would put 3 or 4 dowels in each tier (either 3 in a triangle shape, or 4 in a square). Make sure the dowels are a fraction of a millimeter above your sugarpaste - the weight of the tier above is taken on the dowels, not the cake. How thick was the card you placed the cake on? It needs to be relatively strong, otherwise it will distort and it won't be supporting the cake. I use something like these:

http://www.almondart.com/shop/Boards.html

(it does say they're suitable for each cake when doing a tiered cake)

Place a blob of royal icing on top of the dowel - this will secure the cake above to the cake. If there's a gap between the tiers, just fill it in with royal icing or let down sugarpaste (think of when someone puts sillicone between a bath and the wall... they squeeze it along the join, then smooth off the excess with their finger! That's exactly what you do)

For an ordinary 3 tier cake, I don't think there's any need to use a centre dowel. Firstly, the wooden dowels we buy aren't long enough. Secondly, the cake boards we use are different to the US ones, so you'll find it won't be as straight forward as you think to just sharpen the dowel and knock it through.

I've done quite a few cakes and I've NEVER used a centre dowel through all 3 tiers.

HTH

see this is why it's confusing for us UK cakers because the folks in the states have such a much larger selection of tools etc that we don't. I've been advised more times that I can remember on here to use a wooden dowel and sharpen the end and knock it through each of the tiers - and I know having used double thick cake cards, that it's DEFINITELY going to take more than a hammer and a wooden dowel with a sharp point, to knock through one of those bad boys, so I haven't even bothered trying it.

What ron ben israel does, is probably something you could do and that would be to take a hard board circle (you'd have to make this yourself mind you) and a long wooden dowel (sharpened at one end), drill a hole in the hard board circle right in the center (the same width as your dowel), pop some glue down into the hole and pop your dowel in. Then in each of the cake boards that each of your tiers would be sitting on, drill the same size hole into the middle of them before putting your cake on and then basically once you are ready for stacking, you place each tier down over the sharpened dowel (which should be tall enough to go through all cakes, but short enough that it only goes about 1" through your top tier). Before you put your next tier on, put your support dowels/straws in as usual and then put your next tier on. I've also seen ron using a plexi glass equivelant, which he obviously gets made for him and he has used stainless steel (once again, not really a great option for those of us who are not ron ben israel lol).

Anyway this way of stacking is used in Australia quite a lot - planet cake do it this way. I'd find out what kind of wooden dowels they use, because I think they are ordinary hardware store dowels.
Why are the hardware store dowels not food safe? I would think so long as they are not coated in glue or any other toxic substance, they would be totally fine - I certainly wouldn't have any issues using something like this (because to me I just think it would be a giant cocktail stick lol).

Apparently, there are two reasons (this was covered at the last BSG demo I went to); The wood they're made from isn't suitable - it's a lot more likely to splinter (hazard) and b) the way they're stored is incredibly unhygienic!