I am making a castle cake this weekend for a 4 yr old birthday purple and pink with flower/ivy on the side. I need some help with the column thingys on the sides and the top of the cake. I am making a 12" round bottom with a 8" square dummy on the top. or possibly a 10" round bottom and a 6" square dummy on the top. Anyways, she wants to pick it up saturday morning. I just would like some advice on how to keep the columns sturdy for her transportation. Also any suggestions on what to use for them? Thanks soooo much. I'm very nervous as this is my first attempt.

I'm working on some right now! I'm using gumpaste around pvc pipe and letting it dry overnight. The insides would be hollow, so you could use skewers against the sides to stabilize.

Good luck! Let us know what you decide to do

i know some people use the paper towel cardboard rolls covered with fondant or gumpaste for the turrets. if you want the fastest way...just buy the wilton castle kit. those can be secured using candy melts or dowels. if u have the 40% off coupon at hobbylobby or michaels it would only be 13 dollars or so. bad thing about that would be you'd have to get the pieces back, unless of course u just wanted to give it away.

I just finished making this cake today!!!! Here is part of my post I posted under a thread about this kit. I had NO problems at all and NOTHING BUDGED!!

This is a copy of my post today. Thank you. You can go to
www.photobucket.com/albums/dd24/trinitydesigns07/new/
to see some pics. They are on the bottom of page 2 and top of page 3.


Sorry; this is long!!
SO, for anyone wanting to know...this is exactly what I did.....
I made all 300+ Fondant flowers first. Then, my dh drilled a hole in each tower and the roof. I inserted dowels until they touched the top. I made the dowels long enough to go through both layers of the tier and touch the board. I bought a large square piece of syrofoam and left the plastic on it. I measured each tower/dowel and cut it off and stuck it into the styrofoam and labeled where it went on the cake. Then I completely decorated the towers with RI. I used BC to hold the flowers. All flowers were fondant, all leaves were RI. I used the sugar glitter and stuck them in the styrofoam to dry and until I needed them today.
I then covered each peak with crisco and then fondant and brushed them with piping gel and rolled them in sugar crystals. I put them in a rect. cake pan to dry. This was done the day before.
I baked the cakes and crumb coated them. My air was out so it wouldn't dry. I put it in the fridge for a little bit and then iced it with BC; and put it back in the fridge.
Last night, I decorated my boarders on the cake with BC, attatched the fondant flowers and added RI leaves. I left empy places where I was going to attatch the towers. I attatched the roof which was also treated like the peaks and covered in fondant and sprinkled with sugar crystals. The roof had a dowel in it also. I used candy melts to 'glue' it to the cake
Last night, I used candy melts and generously 'glued' the peaks onto the turrets while they were on their dowels in the styrofoam. I left them out all night to harden. The DID NOT BUDGE!!!!!! The fondant made it thick enough, it didn't slide around. They did not mess up when I attatched them to the cake.
This morning, I attatched the turrets to the cake using a lot of candy melts. I made sure the dowels went thru the tier to the board. Which meant the tower itself went into the cake about 1/4". I then piped around the bottom with a lot of BC icing. The ones on the board I did the same way but made the BC piping around it, thicker. I also did not use a dowel on those. I pushed them up against the cake and used candy melts to 'glue' it to the cake. THESE TOWERS/TURRETS DID NOT BUDGE!!!!
I then put the fondant flowers all around the castle, randomly, in the BC and added RI leaves.
I bought a very sturdy box and taped up the bottom very well. (A moving box, a brown 16 x 16 x). I then cut down two corners, all the way to the bottom and made sort of a 'drawbridge' opening. That way I could slide the cake inside. Once the cake was inside, I pulled the side back up and taped it up. OH, btw; my dh had some foam board. I cut two 15" circles out of it and glued and taped them together, then coverd it in the white foil. This was SO sturdy, but very light!!
I had to drive 45 min. to get to the venue. I drove with the cake in my lap while my 19yo son drove thru the curvy country roads!!!! This cake NEVER budged!! I added large BC circles on the tops of each peak as we drove.
I had NO problems, issues, trouble or anything during construction, delivery or set-up. It went perfect! Wilton did not have adequate instructions and the towers should have not been solid on the bottom. I would still be sitting trying to figure it out if it weren't for CC!!

Although I was up until 3 for three nights; I might would do this again. My only issue is it took me three long days to do; ignoring my five children (one actually went to church tonight and told his teacher that!! lol ) and after set-up; it only took five minutes to tear it up!! I couldn't let them cut it after presents! I had to wait and make the kids go play and come back in an hour for cake! My heart just couldn't take it!
I had taken pictures along the way to post here; but.......while we were at the pizza place.......someone got in my emergency icing repair kit and stole my camera!!!!! My only evidence of me making the cake!!! My sweet children did take some pics; so I will attatch one of theirs.
If I can do this cake; anyone can! Just go by the suggestions here and not the Wilton instructions. I will make this cake again. I had so many complements that people were asking for my card! I wouldn't make this to sell; they wouldn't pay me enough; but I would make it for someone I loved.

I love to make castle cakes and would love to have more orders for them.

For the columns and turrets, I use the long white, plastic dowel rods. The kind you use as supports for your cakes. They are by Wilton.

I take ice cream cones, the sugar cone ones and cut them to fit right on top of the dowel rod. I use royal icing to secure the cone to the rod and you can also decorate them any way you like. The rod can be cut to any length because it is lite weight and hollow so you can add a long wooden support or even just a skewer. I use royal icing to cover the turret portion but fondant or gumpaste will work fine. I sprinkle edible glitter on mine as well. They only need to be made up a day or so in advance depending on the weather.

You can add flowers, butterflies or whatever your fancy.

As for the cake, make any stacked cake you like. For the cake top I cut a 4" square, place it on top and then arrange my pillars and turrets accordingly.

You can make doors and windows with gumpaste and add them to your design.

HTH - sorry if it was on the long side.

I used a soda can and made a template for the tops out of cardstock and formed my gumpaste around it then put shingles on!

Thank you all for your advice. I ended up using pvc pipe wrapped in fondant and some end cap pvc pipes to make it stick out around the top of the columns. My WONDERFUL hubby found these little cap looking things and screwed them into the base and the pipes fit tightly on them and didn't budge a bit. Here is a picture of the finished product. Again, thanks for all your great tips. If it doesn't show up. It is in my picture gallery.

Castle for the Birthday Princess

You did a nice job!

Thank you hmschlmom5!