Good Afternoon all!
I am Tosha, and I am new here and new to cake baking/decorating. I have JUST discovered how rewarding it is and how much fun it is to create a cool cake! My experiences consist of 2 cakes
1) A dinosaur cake for my 3 year son's birthday. Cut out into shape of dino and decorated. Somewhat simple.
2) Dora cake, I cut it into the shape of her head and decorated her face. Easier than I thought! but still not super easy!
I know that many people here are seasoned, LOL, so they will think those 2 were easier than ever! But I want to say, I had a great satisfication when I was done and they werent HORRIBLE LOL I usually buy my cakes from stores and now that isnt happening anymore!

So......I thought I am going to REALLY attempt to be crazy here now. My moms b-day is the 30th. I am gonna make her a cake! BUT, I am crazy because I am going to make her a stacked cake! 2-3 levels....probably 2 but I dunno LOL.
I found a recipe for MM fondant that I have heard is pretty simple to work with, so I want to TRY that. I will play around before her b-day to be sure this wont be a COMPLETE disaster! But I am SO excited.
Can anyone give me any tips?
Do you use dowel rods or straws to support? Do you leave the cake board thing in between each level? Her favorite is carrot cake, how do I know if this cake is too heavy to stack? Pretty much ANY tips you can give me would be cool! including a list of some supplies I may need to buy??? pics or links of ideas would be awesome too!
Thanks so much! I am so excited to decorate more and to get to know folks here! If I keep liking this I may take a class or something LOL
God Bless!

Sounds like your off to a good start by carving cakes already, The thing about stacked cakes is make sure your level, and do put dowel rods in for support, do you have to transport the cake? if not then you can put it together and leave it, and yes leave the cake boards on each cake, Hope this helps some if you have to transport it then i cant help there i always take mine to the site and set them up there i dont trust myself yet one of these days im going to bake one just for fun and dowel rod it and put it in the back of my car and go for it if it falls then oh well nothing lost, good luck and congrats on being new here

I am SO sorry that I am just replying! I had it set up to notify me and it NEVER did!
At any rate, thanks so much for the advice. I DO sort of have to transport it, but not on a main road or anthing, just to my community clubhouse. I wonder if it will be fine ???
Dont laugh....OK you can cuz I am laughing........but in terms of making sure the cakes are level. Do you do this by eye, or do you actually pull out a leveler thing? LOL Curious!
Thanks again!

Ok, so I am just as new at this as you are Tosha but I purchased a Wilton cake leveler. I got the smaller one that was pretty cheap i think 6 bucks. You can buy them at Walmart or any cake supply store. Its kind of just a wire between two metal rods but hey it works!

You can do it by hand with a knife, but i dont feel so trustworthy to do that myself yet

the one part of the stack cake that i leveled in correctly made it wobble. If i can get this thing to upload my photos i can post my first stacked cake!

good luck =D

Leveling cakes: one easy way (especially for smaller cakes , like 10" & under) is to use a serrated knife that will go all the way across the pan from edge to edge. The cake should bake up to &/or slightly above the pan so you run the knife across it and the cake is level

I'll see if I still have pix of a dino....there are several ways to make them but one easy way is to cut a round cake in 1/2 and stand them on the cut edge (sandwiched together w/icing). Taper/round the top edges a bit and ice. To make the legs & long neck you can use fondant or lots of piped icing

.......Do you use dowel rods or straws to support? Do you leave the cake board thing in between each level? Her favorite is carrot cake, how do I know if this cake is too heavy to stack?........
It depends on how big a cake you are stacking. If you make say a 10 & 6 then straws will be more than ample to support that 6"er (even a carrot cake); especially since you don't have to 'really' transport it If you are using much larger cakes my advice might change
Yes, you have to have each cake on a cardboard cake circle. Otherwise there would be nothing holding up the top tier - it would just push down on the straws like a knife thru butter
Usually a 'tier' of cake is two 2" layers put together w/filling. So each tier would be on a circle the same size as the cake.