If you've made a cake of stacked books, can you PLEASE help me?

Do you use cake boards, and if yes, how do you hide them? Do you mix gumtex with your fondant so the book's "cover" doesn't limp? -or- should I strengthen the "pages" with gumtex and let them support the outer edges of the cover?

I previously made a Bible cake, which was a lot harder than I ever expected... but because this was my second attempt at doing a book, I didn't expect such a challenge.

To top it all off, my MMF turned into a crumbled mess after I added enough Wilton gel to get the rich color of a novel. That's probably a big part of my problem!

Any tips and suggestions you can offer to help avoid additional obstacles will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

I did a stacked book cake in a Sugarshack class. We had cake boards under the top book just like you would do any stacked cake. Cover the bottom book first, then dowel it then stack the top book with just the buttercream coat on. After it is stacked then put your pages around the sides and then place the cover on. She had us add some tylose powder to our fondant, rolled it out, cut the cover from a template and let it sit for a little while before putting it on the cake. That let it not be so floppy but yet still pliable enough to bend. Then we propped the edges up with whatever we had to help keep the edges from sagging. Also, roll your fondant a tad thicker than you would probably roll it. You can look in my pics at my stacked book cake, it's not great but it's not bad either. HTH

I'm planning a stacked book cake for September and I saved an awesome thread about it. Here you go: http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-628199.html

HTH!

Wow !! Thanks for all of the help. Bonnell, your books look great. It's too late for me to texture my cover, but that was a nice effect..... hmmm, next time. I dream of attending one of Sugarshack's classes someday.

Alanaj, that was a lot of research and it was so wonderful of you to share it! If only I would have asked for help earlier?!? Your post will be helpful to so many.

I'm also appreciative of the PM response from Cinjam with her helpful tips as well.

Now maybe I can get some sleep tonight, and tomorrow night's cake making will go a little easier than today!

Thanks again![/i]

Thank you, awesome information on book cakes!!