hiya,

i'm new to the world of stacked wedding cakes and have to say i'm a tad nervous that i have one due this weekend its a 4 tier, 16", 13", 10" 7" all rounds with a heart shaped topper.

major question is that i was going to bake the bottom tier as 4 x 8" square cakes and then carve them to a 16" round, will this work or will it compromise stability? its a fruit cake for the bottom tier if that makes any difference?

i also could do with some advise on how many dowels to use?

i'm really hoping i can pull this cake off without any problems cus i really wouldn't know how to rectify it!

any advise u can offer would be fab.

thanks in advance!

I'm not sure why you bother carving a square into a circle, why not just buy a circle pan??

I'm guessing your oven is not big enough, but they make half pans...would a half pan fit?

I mean it would still be 16" long, by only 8" wide though, I don't know...I'm just thinking you're gonna run into problems carving 4 square cakes into 1 round cake.

What about baking 4 8" round cakes and have 4 individual cakes butted up to eachother as the base? That's a very popular design right now!!

yeah my oven isn't big enough, i didn't know there were half tins, thats something i will have to see if i can get within the next day as i'm on a short time frame (last minute order, long story!)

they have already picked their design so i would like to accommodate it as much as i can, though i'm assuming if you can use half pans without the stability being put into question then providing i can get the cake carved into a round it should stack ok?

Yeah, it will be fine. Remember, it's the internal supports, the dowels and cake boards, that provide the structure and stability, not the cake itself.