Smaller Cakes W/larger Ones Stacked On Top
Decorating By Jenni Updated 1 Jan 2010 , 8:42pm by HarleyDee
Here's the deal: my sister saw a picture of a cake she really wants me to make for her wedding that has a series of small (prob. 6 in cakes) arranged in a circle with larger cakes stacked on top. I was planning to do a version of this but cant for the life of me figure how to assemble this cake so that it is STURDY for 1 hr. transportation. I am a fan of the SPS but how on earth could i do this: I figured I would place a round 10" dummy cake in the center of the circle of 6" cakes. Then stack a 12", 10" 8" and 6" on top of that...so I COULD assemble when I get there but I am afraid to wait just in case it doesnt work out like I planned. I also am afraid of the 6" cakes getting "squished" by the weight of the other cakes stacked on top. Gosh I hope this makes sense b/c this is all I can think about. I have time--the wedding is 3 months away--but i need to sort this out in my head!!!
SO-Has anyone ever stacked larger cakes on a circle of smaller cakes before and how did you do it so that the weight is evenly distributed??
I have seen lot of these cakes. I think its Colette Peter's design. If you can find " Colette's Wedding Cakes " book, that particular cake is in there. Here is the cake, its in the the 7th row, the cake in the middle.
http://www.colettescakes.com/wedding_cc.html#
all you would do is just dowel each of the small cakes near the edge and then the larger cake sits centered on all of those dowels. I would think you're idea with the cake dummy should work and would be much less stressfull!
I think a 10" dummy would be perfect...maybe even a 9" dummy, make sure your 6" cakes are just slightly shorter than the cake dummy....then your other cakes should just literally float right over top of the 6" cakes with no problems.
Yeppers--its a Collette design for sure...my sister aims for the top and LORD HELP ME!! I resisted doing her wedding cake b/c I only do "fun" cakes--bdays and shower cakes--but no weddings! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for your responses! I need to wrap my head around this now so that I can stay sane! Whew...
Just saw similar on Amazing Wedding Cakes on WE Network. Merci Beaucoup Cakes did it. They called them "satellite" cakes. They had to assemble on site because the board needed to hold all the satellite cakes was too big to fit through their doorway. I think they had the main part assembled for travel, but the board and the little cakes were separate. I saw them put hollow dowels on the edges.
Here's a link to the cake picture: http://www.wetv.com/photo-galleries/amazing-wedding-cakes-merci-beaucoup-cakes/arboretum.html
Here's the episode guide: http://www.wetv.com/amazing-wedding-cakes/episodes/fantasy-arboretum-retro-fabric
It's airing again January 1, if that helps you at all.
careful using sps with this design. i made a 2-tier grill cake, 10" top tier, 8" lottom tier and tried to use the sps plates/pillars, but the pillars wound up on the outside of the 8"
don't know if that made any sense, good luck with this wedding cake!
For you young 'uns on here .... 
That design isn't really new. I believe it's in this book ( http://cgi.ebay.com/Celebrate-Wedding-Cakes-by-Wilton_W0QQitemZ400094643070QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Nonfiction_Book?hash=item5d277fc37e ) a number of times, and this book came out in 1986. It's been around a LONG time.
I made one similar. I set the main cake on top of a styrofoam. The styro was 4" tall and the satellite cakes just fit under them. Adding the support rod on the edges, as mentioned above is a very good idea and will help with the support, but I didn't use them. The styro that the main cake sat on worked fine.
What was old is new again to a new generation! 
Would this be of help to you? It's Wilton's Lady Windemere-Look 4 Arm Base
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E314507-475A-BAC0-54AC7571827C3EC5&killnav=1
Thats a gorgeous cake. Good Luck with it, I am sure it will be great!
Also, try here: http://www.wilton.com/idea/Ivory-Grandeur-Cake
and here: http://www.wilton.com/idea/Romantic-Ripples-Cake
They had to assemble on site because the board needed to hold all the satellite cakes was too big to fit through their doorway.
That's actually a very good thing to mention. Anything you build is going to have to make it out your front door.
Thank you to everyone! My mind is a bit more at ease now! I am not fully decided if I will try to figure out a way to assemble before transporting or just wait til I get there...
I am so afraid of a toppling cake! Especially with a dummy styro cake for the base...seems too top heavy to travel with. Thanks again to everyone and please keep the ideas coming if you got 'em!
careful using sps with this design. i made a 2-tier grill cake, 10" top tier, 8" lottom tier and tried to use the sps plates/pillars, but the pillars wound up on the outside of the 8"
don't know if that made any sense, good luck with this wedding cake!
what you should have done was just used the 6" sps under your 10" cake. I know it doesn't seem right having only a 6" board under a 10" cake, but it works. The sps plate going into your 8" cake HAS to be smaller than your cake or it will split your cake. As long as you have a sturdy cardboard or foam core under your 10" cake it will sit nicely on a 6" sps plate. HTH for future endeavors
Thank you to everyone! My mind is a bit more at ease now! I am not fully decided if I will try to figure out a way to assemble before transporting or just wait til I get there...
I am so afraid of a toppling cake! Especially with a dummy styro cake for the base...seems too top heavy to travel with. Thanks again to everyone and please keep the ideas coming if you got 'em!
Just wanted to share from experience, I'm still fairly new at cake decorating (been dabbling for a little over 2 yrs. now and am self taught thanks to CC) and I find it a LOT less stressfull to stack on site. Yes, you get people watching you once in a while, but it's nothing compared to looking back in your trunk and seeing a 4 tiered cake wobble back and forth only to realize when you turn back around that the car that was 50 ft. ahead of you has suddenly slammed on their brakes and is now 2 ft. in front of you!!!!
I would definitely assemble this cake on site. Get into that reception hall as early as they will let you and give yourself plenty of time. If you think it will take you an hr. to set up...give yourself 2 hrs. Once the cake is assembled and standing, it should be sturdy to stand all night!
Just for your own sanity....might not be a bad idea to go ahead and shove some sps into that dummy cake, so their will be NO WORRIES about structure and stability and that way you can actually enjoy your sisters wedding as everyone awes at what you've pulled off in the form of cake!!
Keep in mind if you've got a 12" bottom cake on the 10" dummy, you're going to want to get ahold of a 9" sps plate to go into the dummy. You could even put the 12" cake on a piece of wood as well, then you know that puppy is sturdy to hold all that weight. I don't think there are any worries about the styro squishing though. I had some big cake dummies that I thought (I'll never cover something this huge for ANY reason) they were like 18" squares or something (can you imagine rolling out fondant for that?) Well, I glued 4 of them together and covered it in fabric and it sits in the corner of my liv. room as a little seat and I've sat on plenty and TRUST me.......I weigh a LOT more than your cake will EVER dream of weighing and I didn't notice it squishing at all........although like I said, there was 4 layers.
thanks for your input Khalstead, I am a self-taught decorator too and have to learn by trial and error. Only I dont want to make an experiment out of my sisters wedding cake!
indydebi--do you mean that I can assemble the rest of the tiers (besides the styro bottom) and then set them on top of the stryo base and satellite cakes when I get to the reception? The only reason I would assemble ANY of the cake layers is b/c one of the layers will have fondant kind of flowing down to the next layer...those are the 8" and 10" layers. I am afraid if I wait to assemble it at the reception, the fondant will crack when I position it.
I am so afraid of a toppling cake! Especially with a dummy styro cake for the base...seems too top heavy to travel with.
Assuming you have a 3-tier cake, then the small satellite cakes 'under' the 3-tier cake.
The way I did my cake like this ....
Assemble the 3-tier cake.
Upon arrival at the venue, set the styrofoam base on the table.
Arrange the satellite cakes around the styro.
If the heights are right, the satellites will be 4" tall, which is exactly the height of the styro.
Set the 3-tier cake on top of the styro. The satellites will be slightly tucked under the 3-tier.
The styro supported my 3 tier just fine and I didn't need any dowels in the satellites at all.
Now if your design has the fondant flowing from the base of the 3-tier onto the satellites, then don't do it this way. You'd need to pre-assemble the whole thing and make sure your base board can get thru car doors and doorways! (and that you have a couple of people to help your carry it!)
For you young 'uns on here ....
That design isn't really new. I believe it's in this book ( http://cgi.ebay.com/Celebrate-Wedding-Cakes-by-Wilton_W0QQitemZ400094643070QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Nonfiction_Book?hash=item5d277fc37e ) a number of times, and this book came out in 1986. It's been around a LONG time.
Sylvia Weinstock does a lot of them too, doesn't she?
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