HELP! Ok.. I have a 3 tiered wedding cake for July that I will need to travel 7 hrs to get to WITH the cake. I'm planning on baking, filling, frosting and fondant covering a 14'', 10'' and 6'' and transporting them in separate boxes. I'm just now questioning the use of dummy cakes. I've never done them before but I figure for transport it would make things MUCH easier. The bride doesn't mind either way. COMMENTS/ SUGGESTIONS..? DUMMY CAKE(S) for the top 2 tiers??
Thanks!!
I JUST did this! It was a re-creation of their wedding cake but they were not having that many people at their anniversary party but still wanted it to look like their original so I used a real 8 inch on the bottom and dummy 6 inch on top. You totally couldn't tell that the top was a dummy. It won't save the bride all that much since most charge about 80% if what they would charge to make the real cake but it will reduce your stress on the delivery!
So if you are making the 14" a real cake and the other two tier sizes dummys then the transportation is gonna be a snap! I am guessing that the wedding is not such a large wedding but she wants the look of a large wedding cake?
Funny sidenote...the couple I did the cake for...had me show their guests that part of the cake was fake! LOL! They were so tickled I could do it for them they wanted to share the magic trick! LOL!
You, of course, could let them cut the bottom layer and then remove the cake to the kitchen for service.
Cat
You could either do the top 2 tiers dummy cakes and the bottom one real, or what I have done before is cut a piece of the styrofoam out in the back, line with fondant (to keep the cake off the styrofoam), fill the space with a piece of cake, and cover that piece with fondant. Yes, you can tell where the fondant patch is in the back, but it's in the back so who cares? Then I just do 2-layer undecorated sheet cakes in the kitchen. I transport the sheet cakes in rubbermaid tubs (there is a size that fits a 12"x18" cake perfectly!). It works perfectly. That is how I made my own wedding cake without losing my mind.
Thanks for your tips!! The wedding is actually a large wedding of 250 attending the reception! This means sheet cakes for me!! I'm pretty sure I'll end up doing the top 2 tiers dummy cakes and have several sheet cakes including the bottom 14'' layer.
Where do I buy the square Styrofoam for the cakes??
Are you planning to charge the bride for both the dummy cake tiers along with the kitchen cakes for 250?
Because decorating a dummy cake takes just as much time, fondant, and icing as a real cake. From what I've seen the going rate for dummy tiers is about 80% the cost of an actual cake.
You can get dummies from a number of sources. If you Google "cake dummies" the first result, Taylor, is fine. Dallas is also good.
What is the difference from sheet cakes and kitchen cakes?
Sheet cakes are a single layer of cake with icing on the tops and sides. They're sometimes also called "slab" cakes.
Kitchen cakes are two layers (four if torted) with icing and/or filling between each layer. Often they're decorated to match the tiered cake. When sliced, ideally they're indistinguishable from slices of the tiered cake. This way you don't have some guests who get the beautiful 2 or 4 layered slice of tiered cake while others just get a single-layer hunk of cake with icing on top.
Hope that makes sense! 
I had no idea the typical 'sheet cake' insinuated that there is no filling!! Learn something new everyday! I absolutely was planning on filling and similarly decorating the Kitchen Cakes
The cake will be given as a gift because the bride to be is a great friend of mine
ANOTHER QUESTION- How far ahead of time can I pipe my black detail onto the white fondant? jw..
PiccoloChellie thanks for the answer for the dif. between sheet cakes and kitchen cakes. Learn something new every day. Thanks Again!!
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