Advice please on how to support figurine on cake??

Hmm. This reminds me of my late aunt's second wedding: at her insistence, a heavy, porcelain "Precious Moments" bride-and-groom were mounted atop the cake. Which then slowly collapsed under the weight.

You support a heavy topper the same way you support a heavy tier.  dowels or another type of support system.

True story -

Bride had a glass topper custom made (blown glass) at our local glass blowers.  I called the glass artist to ask the weight of the thing.  Answer, "Oh not much at all.  Eight pounds."

Sooo . . . I put an SPS plate and pillar assembly into the top tier, covered that with an extra circle of fondant. and advised them to place ther topper on the cake right before the pictures and take it off immediately.  Seemed to work as I never heard otherwise.

I routinely carried straws with me, so that when I got to the reception venue and discovered a heavy-ish topper, I had instant support.  Place the topper briefly onto the top of the cake to get an outline of where its going, cut straws and insert several of them into the tier and set the topper in place.

I had  a client who wanted a heavy glass cube picture frame as a topper. I simply prepared the top tier as if I were placing another tier on top, with straws and a cardboard round. and frosted the top of it. When the cake was in place at the event, the topper was put on top. As far as I know, there were no problems with sinking

<ROFLMFAO>

The topper has to be sitting on a rigid base for the straws to do any good.  Small circle of bone dry gumpaste,  small piece of plastic plate or foil covered cardboard...which can be camouflaged with icing, but they have to be RIGID.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danilou 

Thanks for that. Does that apply to using dowels as well? I've stuck two kebab sticks through the owl with the intention of sticking it into the cake to secure it and have now decided to use dowels underneath. Do I still need to use a platform between the owl and the cake?

If the owl has enough of a base in order for it to sit on the dowels or straws, then you can place the owl directly on top of the dowels and your kebab sticks will help prevent tipping over. But if the owl doesn't have a base, then you'll need some kind of platform. i like leah's idea of just covering a plate, or cardboard with fondant. if you use cardboard your sticks will poke right through