Hi! I'm new to the forum and looking for some advice from professionals who might have created something similar to what I'm doing in a couple of weeks (9/14/13).

I have a sports themed grooms cake and the Bride and I came up with a design to use 3D Ball pans (football, basketball, soccer) to create a unique surprise for her Groom.

I'm going to do a 12" double layer for the base cake. Then we'd like to stack the finished sports balls on top of one another atop the base.

I'm well versed in creating tiered cakes and know all about using dowels for supports. My concern, because I've never stacked 3D or shaped cakes, will the dowels be enough to support each of the "balls"?

I've viewed a tutorial of an ice cream cone cake where the decorator made a PVC base that went through the entire cake. But since I'm using a 12" base cake, I'd rather not have to build a contraption to hold the cake together and lose valuable servings for my bride. I also don't want to use Styrofoam for parts of the cake.

This was my thoughts for creation, and hopefully someone can tell me if I'm thinking correctly.

For each of the "balls" I'll make sure that there is a flat spot not only on the base of the cake where it sits upon it's cardboard, but also on top where the next cake will rest. Then in each flat spot I'll put support dowels spacing them evenly where the cardboard base will sit.

The top "ball" will not have supports on top so I was thinking to support is by using a thicker dowel that will support the entire height of the cake. I can cut a hole through the cardboard and into each cake to slide over the larger dowel.

My bride has hired me and my staff to cut her cakes so I'm not worried about others missing the extra dowels since I'll be the one removing them.

Do you think this idea will work? Or does anyone have a better solution?

I love doing new and unique ideas and pushing myself to learn even after 20 years of decorating so that's why I've taken on something so different for her. And who knows, if I can make this work what I can create next!

Thanks for any and all advice in advance!

Andrea

Welcome to CC!

Wish I had some advice for you, but I'm just a newbie to decorating myself. 

Do you have a drawing of your design that we could see to maybe help.

Good luck and can't wait to see pics!

I think I would create the cake balls in halves. For example, bake, fill and crumb coat each half of the ball. Use a piece of cardboard like with a regular cake, and then sandwich the cardboard together. You can then finish icing the entire ball, and it should be fairly stable, even upside down. I would def use a long center support, perhaps a pvc pipe and have the holes precut in the cardboard and cakes like you mentioned.

This way you can get the balls done, then stack everything together when you get to the venue.

Just my .02

Ahttp://sweeteatscakes.blogspot.com/2010/12/topsy-turvy-stand-tutorial.html

This sounds similar to what you want but these are tilted, same method just don't cut PVC at an angle.

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3102244/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Here is the final product. Wasn't my best decorating work and I wasn't happy with the Wilton football pan at all. But the groom loved it and that's what matters most. If I ever have to do it again I will change a lot. (And charge a lot more!)

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3102245/width/200/height/400[/IMG] I was much happier with the wedding cake!!! ;)