Hi i am making my first 3 tiered baby shower cake for a friend next week... (I plan on starting on Monday) It is going to be 3 tiered, chocolate cake covered with fondant, with fondant dots accents... Simple right... I know that i will need a strong base to support the cake weight, and that i will need to use dowel rods... I have 1/4 inch wooden dowel rods, but im not sure they are big enough to keep the cake from falling over, each tier will be 4 inches tall, and i am needing any advice that can be given to avoid failure.
do i need to put the rods on both the 1st and 2nd layer? are my rods the right size for this cake. Bottom is 10" middle is 8" and top is 6". is there any thing else i need to know?
I just posed a similar question.....will be watching your post for replies as well!
Hi i am making my first 3 tiered baby shower cake for a friend next week... (I plan on starting on Monday) It is going to be 3 tiered, chocolate cake covered with fondant, with fondant dots accents... Simple right... I know that i will need a strong base to support the cake weight, and that i will need to use dowel rods... I have 1/4 inch wooden dowel rods, but im not sure they are big enough to keep the cake from falling over, each tier will be 4 inches tall, and i am needing any advice that can be given to avoid failure.
do i need to put the rods on both the 1st and 2nd layer? are my rods the right size for this cake. Bottom is 10" middle is 8" and top is 6". is there any thing else i need to know?
Yes..you'll need supports in your 10" and 8" and the 1/4" dowels will be sufficient to "keep the cake from falling over". I actually use straws instead of dowels. I HATE cutting wooden dowels...straws are so much easier to cut. If you look at my photos I have several tiered cakes and all of them have McDonald's straws for supports. Everyone of them. Some people use the bubble tea straws but I find that milkshake straws (look just like McDonald's straws) work just as well. The straws in my cakes literally are McDonald's straws. I'd ran out of my milkshake straws and ask for extra when ordering from McDonald's...the manager gave me a couple of handfuls. I can usually get at least 2-3 supports out of one straw so they go pretty far. I only use 6 in my 10" cakes and 4 in my 8" cakes and they hold up fine. Actually the more holes that you poke into a cake the less stable it becomes. Since straws "fill up" with cake when inserted and dowels "displace" cake when inserted I think the straws make a more secure support system. You'll also need to put each tier on it's own uncovered cardboard cake circle the same size as the cake.
I make my own cake boards (for the finished cake) by taping 3 or 4 cardboard cake circles together and then wrapping them with decorative paper. If I'm making a 10/8/6 inch tiered cake I would use 12" cake circles for the base.
There are some great tutorials on youtube on "how to stack a cake"
yes, what CWR just posted. make sure there's a cake cardboard beneath each layer, and a little piece of wax paper over cornstarch between layers so the layers easily can be removed to be cut. I used bubble straws on my 1st (& only) 3 tier recently and it even travelled without any problems. HTH
mamawrobin: I love your idea!! what do you use though to go through all the tiers?? I used the dowel method last time and sharpened a dowel to go through all the tiers. I am thinking that wouldn't work with the straws though....
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