Hi there. I recently purchased some styrofoam cake dummies. I'd like to use these dummies to practice using fondant, designs with buttercream(using different colors) as well as build my portfilio. I'm just a little confused on the best way to use them. I tried wrapping them in cellophane/plastic wrap and that totally didn't work! I've also read about "spackling" them but I'm not sure with what exactly. Do they really need to be wrapped? The ones I have are rather large and I could see having to spend lots of money in buttercream and fondant. Lastly, for those of you who do work with these..are there any little tips you can give as far as handling them...because they're so light it makes it difficult handling these things! Thanks so much!

I bought a set just for this and I agree they are a pain, I do take and use the skinny skewers to hold the layers together one I put the fondant on they seem to shift and move on me BAD. I use that saran blue freezer wrap to wrap mine in. I got fed up and just ended up covering them with some buttercream and then adding on the fondant. I had trouble with the fondant ripping from the edges. I'm watching this to see if someone has a better idea for you. Good luck!!!!!

If you roll the corner edges on a hard surface (like a table), you can "round" them off a bit. Makes the fondant less likely to tear.

Thank you, I'll work on the edges. At this point I'll be using them more for buttercream and then moving to fondant. Tonedna, seems I read you used dummy cakes often. Because there's no weight to them I have so far found them very challenging to work with.

You need to fasten them down to get to work on them properly! You can either use a nail through your cakeboard (and into the bottom of the dummy) or you can "glue" it (with royal) or I have even used duct tape to tape them to the cake board!

I have found that rounding the edges (as stated above) makes it a softer edge for the fondant - and I use buttercream on mine (even under the fondant) instead of water - it helps to make a nicer smoother apperance, IMO.

If you screw it up - take the fondant off - scrape off the buttercream that sticks to it - knead it again and roll it out. One thing nice about the dummies is that you get no cake scraps in it if you have to roll over!

I dont' wrap my dummies in anything. Just slap the BC right on them. The BC hardens like concrete, but when I want to remove it, I just slide a knife or spatula under the BC and it pops off in sheets.

I lay mine on a piece of no skid material and there's no, or minimal, sliding. The smaller ones are a PITA, though! Hate working with 6" ones! You can also tape them to your turntable to hold them in place.

To stack them, I barely ice the tops. Just enough on the outer edges to cover the part that will show when the top tier is set in place. A blop of icing in the middle holds them in place. My dummies have gone to numerous bridal shows and I pick the 3 and 4 tier ones up by the top tier to carry them along!

Great advice ladies...I'm so glad I asked. I spent a good amount of money on these things but every time I've went to use them I got frustrated and confused and gave up! Now I can get to work on them! I don't have much experience with the royal icing..if I were to use it as glue does it come undone when I'm ready to change it up?