I have a wedding cake coming up in a month or so (square 150-175 servings). the bride wants additional dummies for added height due to the size of the reception hall. The cake has to travel 2 1/2 hours to the venue.

My plans are to use a 4, 6, 8, 10" dummies with the 12" and 14" being the real cakes. I know that usually the dummies are on the bottom, but i thought having only 2 "real" cakes to stress about during delivery and set up would be best, and having all the others stacked and ready would make it easier.

What are your thoughts? Also, the cake will not be taken to the kitchen to be cut, so do you think it might be "odd" removing the top 4 in front of the guests?

SO DUMMY TOPS, OR BOTTOMS?

Dummy tops made ahead of time would be less stressful for you. Dummies travel really well, Just place in a box. You might even be able to use this as a display cake after the wedding.
The two large bottoms would travel well and be quite stable. Also, if you really wanted you could use the top 4 tiers as decoration for the cake table once the bottom 2 layers have been cut. It would just go from a 6 layer to a 4 layer cake.

that's kind of what i thought, seeing that it is for a friend, i was thinking of not charging her for the dummies if i could get them back for a demo cake. Just thought people might think it was kind of weird/strange to take off the top 4. Love the idea of placing the cake on another table for decoration during the reception

thanks

BTW your cakes are lovely. Good Luck!

When I disassembled a wedding cake, I always put the top tier right in front of the wedding cake as table decor. (Turn a 6" plate upside down for a slight elevation ... looks great!) So removing the top 4 tiers would look really normal and having it set up as decor is a good idea.

Thank you dsilvest for the compliments, it always means alot when it comes from someone else in the field

Thanks for your post too Indydebi, you guys have helped me think things trough in order to do it the easiest way possible, and hey if you guys say go with it, then hey i'm goin'

I guess in my ignorance I've just not known better but is there a certain order you are supposed to use dummys? I've used them as the bottom cake but I've also used them as the top cakes too<G> I didn't seem to have any problems but are there some I'm not aware of...ok, now I'm worried! LOL!

Cat

i was just curious about the disassembly infront of the guests and i have to travel a long way and didn't want to have to assemble all the little tiers. If i use the dummies on the top i can do most of the work ahead of time and only be concerned about the two larger cakes instead of 5 smaller ones. i just thought it might seem wierd, because i have always done them on the bottom too. But they brought up an excellent point, i can use the top tiers for display cakes and charge a lower price for the dummies since i want them back.

Whenever serving a wedding cake, I always ask the servers that they disassemble the cake and cut from the bottom tiers upward. This way, if there's any cake left over, it's the smaller tiers that can easily boxed up rather than a portion of a cut up large bottom tier.

Therefore, I don't find it odd at all to remove the top 4 tiers and cut up the bottom tiers.

Debi, I agree...I'm part of the entertainment! LOL! Feels a bit like performance art too! LOL!

As for the dummies...people actually get a kick out of the fact that not all of the cake was real...it's a trick that they enjoy learning the secret about!

Cat