Hello CCers.

My dearest lovely friend is getting married in May 3rd and I will be making her cake as present, after so many weeks of asking her what design she wanted she finally today decided to send the pictures of a cake she would like me to use as reference...she doesn't care much of whatever design I use as long as it has this construction...
Seriously, I almost fell of my chair when I saw the pictures!!!

she got the pictures from a friend of a friend that got married back in my our country, she is trying to track down the decorator to ask her how was made, but so far no luck.

Does anyone have a clue of how this cake was made? any ideas? suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

i would think it's just like any topsy turvy cake design except they left the tilted parts open for better viewing, it really is a stunning cake.

i think you would also have to stack it at the reception site too, but if you didn't feel comfortable leaving the cake at that angle, just do a less exaggerated angle and it should still have an amazing look to it

Maybe the one tilted tier is a dummy? That would make sense to me, since real cake would be too unstable.

Looking at the upclose picture, I would bet there's a dowel under each of the wire (?) balls to support them and the cake tier above. It really just looks like those 2 tiers are propped up on the balls. As for getting the cakes that are tilted to stay on their boards, my only suggestion would be to use RI to hold the cakes on the boards instead of BC. Hopefully someone else can be of more help! Good luck!

First thing I thought of when I saw this was the Wilton Ball seperator kit. If you use hidden supports that you can get at Oasis (SPS system) and use that in combination with the Wilton Ball Sep. set you should be able to pull it off.

I agree with Moxey2000; I think the tilted tier is a dummy too. Real cake would be too unstable...where would you put the dowels in the tilted tier to support just the edge of the top two tiers, if it were real cake?? At those angles it just wouldn't be enough support.
As for those wire (?) ball thingies, do the pictures provide any description of those? Perhaps those are some purchased accessories for the specific purpose of cake stacking. Otherwise, you might be able to improvise by soldering/welding some metal dowels onto metal balls acquired by the bride. Of course that's a lot of effort. I'd check to see if those are some type of specialty wedding cake accessory first.

Boy, whatta design she picked for her wedding cake! It's beautiful and unique, but even with a dummy tier, doesn't look like an easy feat for stability sake!

Just had another thought....

CakegirlPA, why don't you just make this whole thing as a dummy cake and provide her with kitchen cakes to be cut in the back?? You could put one slice of real cake in it for the cake-cutting ceremony and just tell them where to cut.

I've really been contemplating over your pics, and now I'm wondering if the whole thing is a dummy?

Just a thought.

whatever the design and numbers of dummies it might take, you are the most awesome friend to give this to her. good luck!

If you used a hinged board like this (I don't have Doug's sketching skills)...

http://pages.cthome.net/CAPThome/Image118.gif

Maybe to keep tilted tier from sliding, skinny dowels can be inserted into it.

That way the bottom tier could be doweled for proper support.

or

If wooden boards were used, the bottom tier iced and decorated...a fat, pre-measured dowel inserted and secured to base board(screwed maybe...or inserted into a pre-drilled hole for ease of disassembling)...the wire/vine ball slid over it on one end and 2 dowels shorter at the other end...also secured to the base board.

The board for the second tier is prepared with one hole(not all the way through) for the ball end and two at the opposite ends drilled in the underside to align with dowels in base tier. On the upper side do the same as for the base tier. The base for the third tier done in the same way as the underside of the second tier and dowelled as you normally would.

To assemble, simply align holes with the dowels...like you would with pillars and plates...

It would just take a bit of prep work.

Looks like dummy cake to me!

I saw a cake like this on that MTV fabulous wedding show and I actually had a slight "yelp" when I saw the tilted tier. it's so dramatic. but wouldn't an actual cake be too heavy for that?

I believe an experiment is in order...I'll see if DH is going to be a willing accomplice(well someone has to do the drilling, right???)

For the life of me I can't figure out how the end of the tilted tiers can rest on the tier beneath it on the side that doesn't have the 'ball'.

I'm thinking the bottom TWO tiers are dummies and the real cake are the two top ones. That's the only way I can imagine the tilted ends being supported by the 'cake' beneath.

DOUG!!! Where are you?!!

I agree about real cake not being stable enough for that angle, AND that most or all of it is likely dummy. Do these elaborate cakes really get disassembled and cut at these swanky weddings?

I agree with the others that the two bottom layers are dummies and I wonder if dowels are comming up through the dummies, through the balls and supporting the top two cakes.

Would be interesting to find out how it's done. Keep us posted, please.

B2B

<...agree with the others that the two bottom layers are dummies and I wonder if dowels are comming up through the dummies, through the balls and supporting the top two cakes...>

I think only the tilted center one is a dummy. No need for the lowest tier to be a dummy - it is sitting flat on a very well supported surface. Next is the tilted dummy, then 2 more perfectly flat tiers.
Since she said she only needs enough cake those 2 top tiers will serve then sure, go w/dummies on the bottom.
<...planning to sit the top two (real) layers on a longer board, so I could insert part of the board into the third tilted (dummy) layer...>
Sounds good to me Don't make it too long though - 2-3" is probably enough. Remember dummies don't weigh much so it won't support w/weight - just help a bit to balence the upper tiers.

re: Doug where are you?
whole week doing middle school musical set -- the never ending set!!! (which was properly anointed with blood when I tried to take off the tip of my finger while attempting to fix my jigsaw while it was till plugged in! such a "boy" thing to do ) -- and lights -- and the kids dun gud, real gud -- even kept going when we blew out the fuses to the sound system/music and had to sing a capella!

_______


now as to the cake...

the whole thing could easily be real cake -- even that tilted tier.

this cake is in the style of Ron Ben-Israel (search on him here on CC to find lots more info on this style)

now as to this particular one....first take note of the two annotated pics.

notice first the area indicated by the yellow arrow in the left picture -- see how the icing is obviously displaced by the ball indicating the ball is sinking into the icing to sit on something?

now in both notice the border indicated by the blue arrows -- hmmm that seam sure seems to be following the edge of a square plastic plate.

now notice the green arrows -- do you see the deflection of the board -- how it's bending -- indicating a) that's real cake there -- not styrofoam as that would be rigid enough not to flex, b) there is only ONE support at that point -- most likely the ball itself c)the board under this one is probably NOT plastic but cardboard (more on that later)

and those balls do look hard enough to hold up something.

now---

as some know there is a two-plate method that uses a plastic plate on the TOP of the lower tier and the bottom of the upper tier to get a big gap.

so.....this is how I would do it (not necessarily how this designer did it)

1) get hard metal or very heavy duty plastic balls -- strong enough to support ONE tier (about half the weight)

2) get 2 plates...

then proceed as in diagram.

lower ball rests on bottom plate which is held up traditional dowel support method.

slanted tier on cardboard to allow heavy duty dowel to rise through it to plastic plate under upper two flat stacked tiers.

slanted tier rests on ball at one end and on the lower plate on the other end (and yes real cake properly glued to the board w/ BC under between tier and board would be stable enough)

two color-matched-to-balls dowels rise up from bottom plate, through the balls to support the top plate.

now -- since this whole contraption rests on two dowels....and knowing that gravity it going to want it all to fall....

that bottom plate would best be done so the dowels could be screwed to it. and the slanted tier lowered over it. then the top plate with the two tiers put in place. since it is obvious that the bottom tier of the top two tiers does not have a board showing, indicating the fondant covers the board...most likely the board is also wood and has sockets (half depth holes) drilled in it that will fit snugly over the dowels.

---
one more possibility on the dowels -- notice how thick the base under the whole cake is -- it is possible that both dowels are glued/screwed into it and and dowels rise up through both bottom and slanted tiers (meaning dowels in place first and then those tiers are lowered down over them).

HTH

It had to be you , as the song says. Bless you Doug!

All Hail Doug!!!! I am giving a bow to you as we speak.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

When I saw this pictures I almost fainted...I was so sad thinking I wouldn't be able to figure out the assembly.
Thank God you guys always come to the rescue.

Doug, God bless you for taking the time to explain all this.

doug you are just to smart for you own good lol,lol,..funny how our cake brains work. allways something on in all of our minds. but when you good you good doug...

Wow. Doug you are AMAZING!!!!

Awesome job!

I'm still trying to figure out how that much weight can be balanced on a single center support (ball), even with a dowel through it to the bottom.

Wouldn't that be scary to get it centered and balanced?

I knew Doug would have the answer!!!
What an amazing talent! We are SO lucky to have you!

Lish

p.s.- Don't want to hijack the board, but what was the musical???

Thanks, Doug! I knew you were the man for the job. (My DH is going to yell at me, "I could've told you how it was done", I'm sure, but I wasn't going to wake him up last night and knew I wouldn't have time to show him this morning). I knew you would give us all the answer!