Help Please With Sps System, 1/2 Gap Between Tiers
Decorating By ranbel Updated 4 Apr 2009 , 10:50pm by soygurl
My calla lilly cake in my photos was my 1st sps...ugh. I thougth I planned well... not so much. Some had a 1/2 in gap, one fit nice and one had a varied gap...I thougth I was going to die when they gave me 1/2 in ribbon to put around it?!!!! I really thought it would be at least 1 in wide!! So hubby and I set it uptogether on site and filled some spaces with bc buit the grease soaked in a bit so I wrapped it twice and it was better. Thank goodness it was brown ribbon too. one spot the ribbon fit under the gap completely!! But enough BC filler on the fondant and we made it stick! Whew, no one knew and it looked good 
Yes VERY hard to cut without a real saw. ( circular or something electric, manual sawing would be crazy hard to get through so many and be straight)
Sometimes I put the plate in after I've iced and before I smooth so that I can test out the height. this is my first time using this system. I heard such good things about it, I thought I would try it. My cakes are covered with fondant. I am using ribbon around the base, but it looks like the ribbon is just gonna be wide enough to cover the gap only.
It should be ok to just fill in with BC and smooth. I usually have a 1/8-1/4" space intentionally (that way the plate doesn't pull up any frosting), but 1/2" IS pretty big.
For the future, I get the 9" pillars and cut them all down to size. Yes, it's a MAJOR pain to cut them without an electric saw, but with a clamp to hold it in place, and a small hacksaw it works ok (I only cut on the score marks).
I know some people only buy the 4" (or are they 5"?) supports, and make sure all their cakes are exactly that height, but that really isn't practical for me, so the 9" ones work much better. I even use the cut off bits when stacking birthday cakes (which I make shorter than wedding cakes). 
anoher question. Do you insert the pillars with the plates attached? the legs on the plates go outside the pillar instead of inside? Also, with a 12/10/8/6, should I put togher at the venue? I thought of putting togther the 12/10 at home and then stack the other 2 at the site? What is your practice?
I stack ALL my cakes before transporting unless it would be too big for TWO people to carry (I work at a local bakery, so there are people avaliable to help transport). I only set up on site for cakes on pillars (again using 9" SPS pillars).
Here's my method for using SPS. I center the plate alone on top of the cake to mark placement. Then I push one full length pillar into the cake (in one of the spots marked by the plate), check to see what height to cut it too, pull it out, wipe if off, and cut all 4 pillars for that tier. Push the cut side of the pillars into the plate, drop a small blob of icing in the center of the cake (it's probably not necessary, but I think it helps with stability since I intentionally leave a space). Then I push the pillars into the cake all at once with the plate attached. I refrigerate that tier while I frost the next one to go on top. I do that whole process to the next tier BEFORE stacking it on top of the first one. IME, it's easier to do it in that order. HTH
I make my cakes fit the SPS. I make them 4" tall (4 and 1/8" including the cake board). You have to count your cake board into your height calculations. If I have a gap it's usually only a small one.
you can use a sereated knife or pvc sheers to cut the plastic dowels. It's not too hard, you can get the pvc sheers at a hardware store their only $12 and they work really well.
Wow really? Even on the supper hard SPS dowels/pillars? I know a serrated knife didn't touch them (that's what I always used to use for wilton plastic dowels). I'd love to find something cheap that cuts them easier than the stupid hacksaw I use!
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