I've been trying to figure out a more permanent alternative to cake dummies for the purpose of practicing. Here's what I came up with...

I bought a 10", two 7" and a 4" tin at Michael's. I found them in the section with the wrapping paper and Chinese food boxes.

I bought microfoam sheets from an office supply store (in the packing/shipping section).

I cover the tins with the microfoam and tape the edges down really well.

The microfoam give the buttercream something to stick to, and can be pulled off and thrown away, so I can recover the tin with a new microfoam sheet and start anew! I think it's much cheaper in the long run. The tins cost $13 dollars for all of them, and the microfoam came in a box of 100 sheets for $15. It takes me 2 sheets to cover the big tin.

I covered and decorated just the biggest tin and took pictures of the process. I don't know how to add them here, but I put them in my photos in case anyone wants to see. Also, the red and black stacked cake in my photos is the big and middle sized tins, not real cake.

The other thing I like about the tins...I put a stack of dominoes (we had some that we never use) inside the tin before covering. It gives it a little weight so it won't move around as much. I had trouble with that with the cake dummies.

So, now I can practice all I want with smoothing buttercream (I have always covered my cakes in fondant, but I want to be able to just use buttercream if the need arises).

silverdragon997

Thank you for posting this idea! It's a great way to save money while practicing.

Your cakes are gorgeous!

I use polystyrene from our local retail park, when they finish unpacking there products they recycle the polystyrene in clear plastic wrap, I go along and take what I need, I can cut them to size (very messy though) or if Im lucky they have just the size I need. xx