I'm so excited, I've been wanting to do a castle for SO LONG, and I finally got an order for one for a little girl's first birthday in December!

I sketched out what I had pictured and showed it to the mom, she said she had been everywhere trying to tell people what she wanted and everyone thought she was crazy (one place even tried to talk her into a fish cake instead ), but my sketch was exactly what was in her head! That made me even more excited!

Anyway, I want the whole thing to be edible, and so I wondered if anyone had made edible towers before? I was thinking about wrapping pastillage around paper towel rolls until it dried, do you think that would work? I was thinking I would cut straight down through the roll beforehand so it would be easier to remove. I will obviously try it out ahead of time to make sure before making all 11 towers!

Thanks in advance!!!

When I made a castle cake, I baked small rounds in tuna cans (there they are again) and stacked on top of each other and secured with a dowel. Turrets were sugar cones rolled in melted pink candy melts. Of course, it came out HUGE!!! They were sending piles of cake home with guests. LOL!!!

I dont see why not edencakes......just make sure that you have wax paper or something else in place so just in case it wont get stuck ...but im intrested to know what everyone has to say........
we have some talented people on here and you never know what one might come up with

I recently did a castle cake and I felt the same way. I really wanted the towers to be edible so I bought a little 3" round pan and baked a bunch of little cakes and was going to stack them. Major mistake! It did not work. Maybe because I tried to trim them to make them a little smaller. They were a little big in comparison to the rest of the cake. Anyways, I ended up icing paper towel holders and calling it quits. It turned out cute and they loved it but I was not happy about the towers. You can see it on my site under birthday cakes. A little while later my husband was walking by the bakery that is by his work (most popular in town) and they had a castle cake in the window. It was only one tier and was twice what I charged for mine. He acted like he was interested and went in and asked about it and they told him the towers were paper towel holders! Then I felt a little better. Good luck and let us know if you find something that works.

ok I know you want edible, but does it have to be cake? What about those mini choc covered donuts stacked on a dowel and covered in icing?

First, how daring are you? Ok here's my idea..(I don't know how big you want the towers, but....) you could use tomato sauce cans. Clean them out really well of course. The tomato sauce cans are taller than tuna cans and skinnier, so you won't have big wide towers. Your towers would be a little smaller. Plus, most tomato sauce cans (I'm referring to the little 8 oz. cans) are smooth, so you wouldn't have any little ripples in the cake like with th bigger vegetable cans. You would have to probably stack about three or four (depending on the size of your cake) and put a dowel through them. But I think it would work nicely. You would definitely have to watch them closely while baking. They would probably cook very quickly. Just adding my 2 cents to the topic....

I made a castle cake last month and I used Twinkies for the towers. Just cut a bit off one end so that it is flat on the end you rest on the cake. I frosted them, of course. I made this cake for a friend's daughter and he, his brother, and my husband were literally fighting over who was going to get the last one...they each had had one already! It was comical. On top of each tower/twinkie was a frosted sugar come w/the same colored glittery sprinkles as the icing. Just a thought.

Julie

I also forgot to mention that you have to put dowels throght the cones and twinkies to have them stay put.

like Mac, i did the turrets of my castle cake by baking in tins (large soup cans, scrubbed clean and greased and floured well...if you have trouble releasing the cakes, you can always up-end them, and open the closed end with a can opener and push the cake out). i "torted" and stacked the cakes( dowelled with straws), using frosting between layers, and then wrapped the whole tube in fondant that i had scored with a brick pattern (you could use a stone impression mat, etc). the turrets were placed at and inside the corners of the "centre" cake (stacked and carved). i then did windows on the turrets and a door with a portcullis, and a bridge over the moat. fisherprice knight figurines guarded the castle, and some other appropriate toys hung out on the centre roof patio. i was told by the customer that the turrets were easy to remove and serve.

but you're doing 11 towers, and i assume not out of cake...are you really expecting people to eat them? pastillage isnt' particularly tasty, and it breaks so easily i fear that would be a perilous route for you to take. i love NEWTODECORATING's idea of stacking mini-donuts on dowels and icing them. you could also stack the donuts (little powdered ones would be good too) attaching them with icing, icing them smooth to fill in the gaps and then roll the tube o'donuts in fondant, which would give you the smooth, dry surface you're aiming for with the pastillage idea.

You could always bake a regular size cake and then use a biscuit cutter to cut out small rounds to stack together and put a dowel through it. You could also use the scraps from that to stack on top and sculpt to a point then cover with frosting.

Just another idea to keep it edible.

11 towers.

That must be one large castle!!

I also like Missdawn's idea of the tomato paste cans!!

There is a castle cake in Lindy Smith's "Celebrate with a Cake." She does the towers by covering paper towel tubes with pastillage and then with modeling paste, which she defines as fondant with gum tragacanth added. The tops of the towers are ice cream cones also covered with strips of modeling paste. The picture is here:

http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/FairytaleCastle.jpg

I'm not that skilled of a baker to know what to do and even some of the castle jargon of aunt-judy's is foreign to me. I just want to see your sketch!
It sounds intriguing.

kos

Kos: is that a breast cancer ribbon rollercoaster in your avatar? i LOVE it!

portcullis: Pronunciation: pOrt-'k&-l&s, port-
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English port colice, from Middle French porte coleïce, literally, sliding door
: a grating of iron hung over the gateway of a fortified place and lowered between grooves to prevent passage

it's a pretty archaic word, appropriately for an archaic thing. YES, edencakes, baby, show us your sketch!!! i'd love to see it.

I have several castle cake designs that I myself didn't do but have saved to my files.Email me if directly and I will send you the pictures.

[email protected]

I haven't done a castle cake but I have made a couple barn cakes with tall silos beside them. For 1,I piled cookies with white chocolate as glue for the tower then iced them all and put a mallow cookie on top (white mallow cookie would work good on the top for a turrent), For the other I used a jelly roll that I made myself (swiss rolls would also work) for the tower and iced. Another way would be to make a thin Rice Krispie cake in a cookie sheet, cool slightly, then roll to the width you want, this will be very stable and you can insert a skewer in bottom if needed to attach to cake.

WOW, thanks so much for all the advice! I think I will end up -trying- the pastillage route, but if it doesn't work I think I'll just use paper towel rolls covered in fondant. I doubt the mom will care that much.

I wish I could show you the sketch, but the mom took it to show her family . I guess I could always do another one

I'm SO glad to have so many people with so many ideas! You guys are great!