Do I Have To Use Cakeboards And Dowels If Doing A Barrel Cake?
Decorating By Milliamo Updated 1 Oct 2013 , 11:52am by Milliamo
Hi All,
Urgent help required pretty pretty please!
I'm making a beer barrel cake for a friend's birthday. I was planning on making 2 7"cakes, torting them and stacking them together, so it will be around 6"high in total.
Do I need to use a cake board between the two cakes? And do I need to use dowels?
All help very much welcome! I know there's other threads on here regarding this, but they seem to be for taller cakes so I'm hoping I might be able to avoid the whole cake board and dowel thing.
Thank you!
AYou don't need dowels unless you're putting something on top. I've made 6 inch tall cakes with no boards in between. It may be a good idea though to help with serving.
ATypically, cake tiers are 4-5" tall.
The circumference doesn't really factor in except when making sure you have enough dowels per tier (the wider the cake the more dowels you'll need) and making sure your baseboard is sturdy enough to hold the entire weight of the finished cake.
With my pricing structure anything taller then 4/5" is considered an extended tier or double barrel. I would do two or three layers, internal support (dowels), cake board, extra layers. Especially if you are traveling with the cake.
I'm not saying it can't be done, I'd rather have extra support then not enough.
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I was planning on making 2 7"cakes, torting them and stacking them together, so it will be around 6"high in total.
Do I need to use a cake board between the two cakes? And do I need to use dowels?
General rule, use support system for every 4" of cake height. I'd use supports at 3" for a 6" tall cake.
fwiw to get the beer barrel proportioned right i'd do a cake that's just taller than it is wide--i'd do two 5-inch cakes that are 6" tall--or i'd do two 7-inch cakes that are at least 8" tall--
and it and you will be much more secure with dowel & board--
Thanks everyone! I'm going to board and dowel as I figure better to be safe than sorry and there's no point putting loads of effort into a cake just to have it fall over!
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fwiw to get the beer barrel proportioned right i'd do a cake that's just taller than it is wide--i'd do two 5-inch cakes that are 6" tall--or i'd do two 7-inch cakes that are at least 8" tall--
Ooooh great point! I'm going to carve my cakes and get some extra height from my wooden panel bits so hopefully it will look proportionally ok! 
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