I am soooo excited to have found this site!!! Addictive is an understatement!

Anyway, I am trying to make a castle cake with towers that are set into the corners of a square cake (I'll cut away the corners). I want the towers to be round...maybe 2" diameter...and various heights. I've seen pictures that look like this can be done, but I can't figure out for the life of me how to do it. I'll resort to frosting a papertowel tube if I have to, but I really want to learn to do this with cake. I've done one with the ice cream cones too, but that also is not what I'm shooting for this time. Do people carve those shapes and get them consistently the same size and evenly round? I guess I just don't have time to perfect that in just 3 days!

Thanks for any help you all can provide! I can't wait to read your suggestions!

Hmm. Well, if you're set on using cake for the towers, I'd get a round cookie cutter and use that to make a lot of small round that you can ice together. That way at least the size will be consistant. Dowel thoroughly, and wrap with a rather thick layer of fondant (the seam side can go in toward the center of the cake and will be mostly covered).

I've also heard of people using a stack of oreo cookies iced together. I always liked that idea, though I haven't tried it myself.

I would carve the towers out of cake (might want to use a loaf pan to bake the cake in) and put a dowel through the tower for stability then cover it in fondant. It might be a bit easier than stacking layers and less time consuming. Can't wait to see how it turns out. Make sure you post a picture!!

Patrice

I just posted a thread about how to bake a cake in a tin can for this same reason. I needed towers for a castle that were all cake. I just baked my tin can cake, it worked great. I am in the process of decorating it now. Can you find a can that small? Maybee tomatoe paste? Hope that helps!

I would bake a sheet cake, then take a round cookie or biscuit cutter and cut them out and frost like a very tall, small layer cake. then use a dowel down the middle for support.

Are you really set on cake for the towers? When I made my one and only castle cake, I used cake for the 4 corners and papertowel rolls for the back. I used the enhanced cake recipe on this site and believe me, it is very durable. I used a large cookie cutter and stacked them, doweled and they still kept leaning. They drove me crazy! The papertowels on the other hand were very easy to handle and looked great! If I ever do another castle cake, I will try cooking in a large tall can (spaghetti sauce cans look promising) or use papertowel cardboards if I don't need that much cake.

Have fun.

I haven't used real cake for the turets. I have used small water bottles then cover with frosting and crushed valilla wafers mixed with crushed graham crackers and sugar ice cream cones for the turet tops on the top of the water bottles.

If you want real food and concern still for keeping it upright; I'd use rice kricpie treats!

I have used 2" round styrofoam for the towers. I found them at WalMart (floral department)and covered them with plastic wrap and decorated away.

I made mini cakes in vegetable cans. I would think something like an asparagus can would work great for the towers. You would definitly have to dow them and use a firm cake batter.

I used paper towel rolls for my turrets. First of all, for stability, and secondly because I could do them a week ahead of time and not have to worry about it. I think, if you do want to make it edible, rice crispie treats or oreos would be the most stable.

I got Debbie Brown's cake book (yes, I ordered it from CC) and she has one that she did with jelly roll cake. She then covered it with buttercream and proceeded to decorate it with fondant & etc. Looked really neat.

I used fudge striped cookies on a dowel rod covered with bc and was happy with the results.

All these ideas are so great! Thank you! I've just put the 3D cake recipe into the oven and am hoping I'm right baking it at 325. I'm going to try the cooking cutter idea. I'm also going to try something that my instructor from a few years ago told me about today. I'll have to look around the site to see if it's on here somewhere and get more detailed pointers on it. She said I could melt white chocolate with corn syrup to make a sort of chocolate playdoh to form an edge below the battlements (which I'm also doing with colored chocolate). I am winging so much of this, but excited about the whole learning process of new techniques. I'll be sure to share pics once it's complete. The party is Saturday, so I'm kinda behind, but I seem to work best under stress.

Modeling chocolate, I believe it's called. I've never worked with it, but I'm eager to try! I've heard it's quite easy to make, and I know there are recipes floating around the boards here.