Ok, so I'm making a castle cake using the turrets from the Wilton castle cake kit (my friend purchased it and wants me to use it). So I was reading the directions for inserting the turrets into the cake because I figured that the turrets were hollow like the hidden pillars so you can just stick them in so it would be no big deal... but was dumbfounded to see that Wilton did not do that!! WTH! So anyways, the directions say to cut a dowel a 1/2 inch shorter than the cake and use melted candy melts to "glue" the dowel to the end of the turret. umm... this is all fine and dandy except that it's supposed to be 90 and humid on Saturday! (plus the venue that the birthday party is at is not the most cake friendliest of places... the building that the party is at is about a mile from the parking lot and I have to get on the back of a golf cart to get it there!!!) I'm already freaking out!!!!! So much to worry and stress over!

#1: I'm afraid the candy melts will melt in the hot weather and therefore will become useless! (was thinking of using royal icing instead... what do you think? Any other opinions?)

#2: Although I'm not sticking the turrets into the cake until I get there, I'm freaking about the ride from the parking lot to the building in a golf cart... it's kind of hilly.. and with the humidity being so high, I hope that my MMF doesn't melt on me!

#3: I want the fondant to have a brick texture.. so i bought Duff's 5x7 impression mat for the stone effect and tried it on a piece of MMF i had laying around...it didn't turn out so well.. the MMF stuck to the mat and it looks like the fondant has to be pretty thick (thicker than I typically use) in order for the design to come out and not pierce through the fondant. Do you have any tips on using the impression mat?? Should I just use the Wilton directions and use a square fondant cutter and go around the cakes to get the look of brick? (I want to play it safe but also dont want to spend a hundred years on this!)

#4: Because the heat is going to be ridiculous. I was thinking about trying the ganache recipe under the fondant rather than the buttercream icing so Im going to try a test run on a small cake today/tomorrow to see if it works.. but Im worried that if I cant figure it out that Ill have to use BC and I risk it melting!

#5: This cake is for a friend who has really high expectations I do cakes on the side as a hobby and so I dont have a ton of experience, but I love to do them. Im so afraid of not meeting her expectation but I have the weather, inexperience of impression mats, and location all stacked up against me. AHH!!

Oh, and Ill have my kids with me (ages 1 and 3!!) So this should be REAL interesting!! Anyone want to trade places with me?!? LOL I told her that Im going to need help with the kids, but its getting them to the building while Im holding a cake thats sitting on a 16x22 piece of board! (Whatever happened to holding a birthday party at your house!? Gone are the days lol)

Does anyone have any helpful hints on using the Wilton castle cake??? I sure would appreciate it!

I freaked out when I did my wilton castle cake, too.
If I had to do it over again (and I never, ever would ) I would have done a lot differently.

I can help with a few things, though.

Drill a hole in the towers/turrets.
Then put a dowel in.
If you are covering with fondant, bring some royal icing with you and just pipe a little on the bottom of the tower and help secure it to the cake.

As far as the stone pattern goes, I covered mine and then when it was still wet, I used a square cutter to push the indentations on it like you thought of.
I don't know about the ganache, but Indydebi's buttercream held up well in hot, hot weather here the other day.


I have a one and three year old, also. I would have someone come meet you at your car and take the kids in for you.

thanks for your suggestions! You know I was thinking about drilling a hole... it sure would alleviate a lot of my stress! I don't think my friend would care either.. I had planned on using RI to glue the other turrets to the cake board... ug, I hate making RI! (I once burned out a mixer making it!) I may give the impression mat one more try.. then if i'm not satisfied... i'm going to do the square cutter method. Thanks again!

I used a saw and cut the bottoms off of the turrets on the last castle kit I used. BAD design, IMO.