Fondant Or Buttercream!? Cake To Travel 3 Hours!
Decorating By yaadie Updated 30 Sep 2008 , 9:54pm by indydebi
I am making my niece her wedding cake, my first wedding cake ever, but I need to know which frosting would be best. she lives in the country and the roads are not the best. I won't have time to assemble it when i get there either..I was thinking a 2 tier, with a dowel down the centre and fondant...does that sound right...?
my concern is any decorations will fall off during travel, she want blue in the design. I was thinking of the fondant like i said with scrollwork and some roses on top. what should i do the scrollwork with...RI or buttercream. I may do white fondant with blue scroll work. her dress is baby blue and the bridesmaids etc in royal blue..I even thought of coloring the fondant 1 layer baby blue the other layer royal with white scrollwork and white roses as the topper...with the scrollwork stay on...during travel on bumpy country roads....
also did I mention I will have my 3 kids in the van...!!
all you seasoned wedding cake makers, give me some advice!!
The key to traveling with an assembled cake is your support system. You seriously need to use SPS for this one.
IMO, the center dowel is totally false security. If your cake starts going sideways, the dowel will stay firmly panted in the bottom board and tear thru your cake. That's happened to several people who have noted as much here on CC.
yaadie, I think the icing depends on the temperature and humidity. BC will be fine if your van is kept very cool, A/C on the entire 3 hrs....kids in sweaters 
Fondant will definitely hold up, but with the scrollwork on it you'll still need to keep the vehicle cool. That means even during bathroom stops, the car needs to stay cool.
I personally would assemble on-site and put last minute decorations on at that time. Some travel 3hrs with an assembled cake, but seeing this is your first and you'll have kids in the van also I would not suggest doing that. Just leave 45 min earlier and call the venue now to arrange on-site assembly. 
I hop it turns out o.k. for you.
Deb
This is a tricky one. As leahs said, the center dowel in this case will be some false hope.
I have driven dummy cakes 3-5 hrs but don't think I have a real cake - especially a tiered one.
Box it for sure.
Saw an older food network show the other day where Mike's Amazing cakes was shipping a small 3 tier. I think the same would apply here.
How about designing the tiers to be displayed on stair step like pillars? That way you could box each cake & just place on display. There are many ways to stairstep display cakes....special pillared stands; a box (or similar) covered w/a nice cloth; etc.
the reason why I can't assemble there is it is a morning wedding, we are already leaving home at 6am...my youngest child is 4yrs! old, so i have to get them all ready too!
my husband is driving and he is ALWAYS running late...regardless of how extra early I get him up!!! he is worse than the stereotypical woman!!!
the reception follows immediately after the service...oh, I forgot to mention the wedding is on the 27th!! she only just planned this quickie wedding, and I am still waiting on the invitation to arrive....!! SO I don't even have the directions!! I really have to have it assembled, it's for 40 people...
So dowel and boxing...?
please tell me what SPS is?
Well, here's an experience which I normally try NOT to remember.....I had a (buttercream) wedding cake order several months ago & was told there was a little dirt road. Of course when I got there, it was about 5 miles of not just dirt, but rocks & etc. There were no cars in sight, only dirtbikes & quads which were flying by me on this "road". I'm serious...it wasn't even really a road anymore! By the time I had got there, the decorations had stayed on the buttercream just fine, but all the vibration from going over the rocks...I mean boulders (okay, I'm exaggerating now!) made the buttercream "slouch" down on the side of one of the cakes. Luckily I had time to fix it once I got there though & it looked just fine. That being said, if the roads aren't good & have a lot of bumps, I would highly suggest doing fondant. On top of that, you don't have to worry so much about the kids sticking a finger in the frosting when you're not looking. The other thing I was SO thankful for was that this cake was all individual tiers that were to be placed on separate stands (as was previously suggested for you to try). I can't imagine if I had it stacked (it would have fallen over if it was cemented together!). Whatever you decide, good luck with everything!
I took a two tier stacked cake from my home to Edmonton, which is a 2 1/2 hour drive, with no problems. It was fondant with gumpaste flowers and fondant swags. Granted, only the first mile wasn't paved but even that was oiled. When you say the roads are bad, do you mean gravel or do you mean ruts and washboards? Gravel doesn't matter, really, so if it gravel on a relatively smooth road, don't worry. My cake was a cherry almond pound cake, so it was quite thick, and I just doweled it. 40 people isn't much, so two tiers will be MORE than enough. I transported my cake in a big rubbermaid container -- just test the bottom board first to make sure you can get your fingers under it to take it out! (With smaller cakes, I put the cake on the lid and put the container over top, but I was pretty sure I would end up dropping the cake if I tried it with that big one.)
that is a good idea about the rubbermaid container, I am not sure what the roads are, she usually visits me!! I only know they may be some rough patches!! I will be on the highway for the first 2 hours at least for sure! I think I shoudl be okay based on everyone's experiences...
I'd be even more likely to go with large rubbermaid as long is it fits in your trunk because you won't have to worry about things falling on/in it. Did I mention I put some of that rubbery mesh no slip shelf liner under the cake in the container. Does your husband have a good reason for not taking the van? Does he not realize that this is important?
wow, here is my new dilemma!! my husband says we are NOT taking the van and I must figure out how to put the cake in the TRUNK!! where I cannot keep an eye on it for the 3 hour trip!!
Is he CRAZY!!!
some husbands just do not understand....!
Yes, he's crazy! 
I say, turn around with your back to him, and bend over. When he asks what you're doing, tell him you're making it easier for him to kiss your ...... well, you get the idea! 
well, I finished the cake, and I am attaching a pic....he wants to take the car because it's a luxury car and he wants to arrive in style....(it's my car) his excuse is the van is not safe (but it is)
anywy, I'm hiding my keys....
tell me what you think....
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo-1269409.html
Your cake is very pretty.
I delivered a 4 tier wedding cake, boxed in two boxes, which was a 3 hour drive, in July and in California. I put bags of dry ice in the boxes, as well as running the air conditioning. It arrived with not a smudge. I did use the sps system also.
Have a nice trip and enjoy the wedding.
....he wants to take the car because it's a luxury car and he wants to arrive in style....
You might point out that he's teaching his children a bad lesson .... he wants to impress people with the car he drives. It's sad that he seems to feel he's "not good enough" unless he shows up in a big fancy car. He's teaching his children that we should be judged by material things.
THere's a difference between wanting to have a nice, safe car .... and wanting to arrive in a "show-off" car. He doesn't want to teach his children that they should be impressed by "things".
I have a sister who taught her children this. Now as adults, they can't deal with living on their income that DOESN'T pay for the standard of living that mommy and daddy "gave" them.
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