I've seen them on Earlene's site, but they are so expensive! $100 for a set of five. I hate covering boards each time I make a wedding cake. I would love some sturdy plastic ones or acrylic ones like on earlene's site. Do any of you know where I can find some?

Could you post the link to that page - I couldn't find them at Earlene's site. Are you talking about acrylic cake stands like the ones at sugarcraft.com and sweetc.com - that have interchangeable bases and tubes or just acrylic/plastic circles. Sweet Celebrations has "tuff boards" - polyethylene cake boards (pg 67 of current catalog) in rounds and 2 rectangle sizes. Just like the cardboard ones but stiff plastic. Or you could use foam core - it is very sturdy. How thick are the pieces you are looking for?

Go to your local glazier...I had mine cut me plexiglass boards...I told him the size and he cut them.

I use them under my cakes...they are cut about a 1/4 larger than my foamcoare base.

I use fabric to cover my boards and was concerned about "grease" or butter from the BC leaking and staining the fabric.

I put the plexiglass on top of the cake board and then my cake over it. Then I put on my BC border..which "rests" on the plexiglass...no staining.

Here's a link. If you scroll down you will see that she has buitl a structure from the support rings and has the plates stacked on top. They are just acrylic plates with no feet or rings. Surely somebody has to have something like this for less. http://www.earlenescakes.com/newringsupportset.htm

IHATEFONDANT, thanks I might have to try that!

IHF's suggestion is probably easier since you can get exactly what size you need, but there's also sites like tapplastics.com that have limited sizes of rounds to 12" diam. & almost 1/4" thick. I've gotten some smaller sheets from Home Depot or Lowe's that my dh cut into squares with a cutter (looks like a glass cutter) and then smoothed the edges with his dremel tool. HTH

cakebox & IHF - Do you ask for them back or are they cheap enough that you don't have to?

Here's what I know so far: for the acrylic circles at TAP Plastics - the largest is 12", 0.236" thick, is $10.25 -- the smaller ones like the 6", 0.236" thick, is $2.95. So let's say you did a 6-8-10-12 wedding cake - using the 0.236 thickness - the total would be $26.75 before shipping. The other thickness is 0.118, with the same wedding set up would total $18.05 before shipping. I haven't checked if these prices are reasonable with other suppliers though - other plastics manufacturers and distributors in your area may be cheaper. Just so everyone is clear - these are separate toppers from the no-stress supports sold through Earlene's.

The tuff boards are cheaper - 12" rounds sold in sets of 6 = $5.59 (before shipping-unless you find them locally, I found some at Hobby Lobby). They also have larger sizes (14", $8.50/6) (16", $9.99/4) (18", $10.25/3) and are also available in bulk. One caveat - I don't have experience with larger cakes so if someone knows how much cake they can support safely, please let us know.

The acrylic stuff I would want back (FYI, I don't sell my cakes, just do office-type ones for dh & friends) but the tuff boards seem affordable.

ps - Does anyone know if any separator plates come with the no-stress supports? The instructions link on that page didn't show any plates being used, just the rings.