I'm making a stacked wedding cake out of dummies. (6", 10", 14", & 18"). I have a few questions and desperately need some help.

1. What the heck do I sit this monster on? I can only find cake boards up to 18" and foam core 20" wide max. I'm figuring I need a 22" base, as I'm laying flowers around the biottom.

2. Foam core's strong enough to hold these when they're covered with fondant, correct? I was thinking about cutting out a 20" circle and then two 11" halves, and gluing the halves together on top of the 20" to get a 22" round. Would that work?

3. I know I could just use RI to glue the dummies together but I feel obliged to dowel them to keep them more stable. Is that crazy?

Thanks, as always, for your help!

Lowe's or Home Depot should sell wooden rounds that are 24", it's what I use for big momma cakes. They are less than $10.

My first suggestion would be what Kory said. For my larger cakes (i had a 14x22 pan), I'd actually lay boards side by side and duct tape them along the seam, then cut them to the size I want. With a large cake, I'd ofcourse make 3 or 4 of them. When I stacked them, I made sure the taped seams were turned in different directions on each board (bottom one runs east/west; middle one runs north/south; top one east/west).

never had a collapse.

But I HIGHLY recommend wooden boards for one that size.

I use masonite boards from here http://www.thebakerskitchen.net/masonitecakeboards.aspx. If the link doesn't work, it's The Bakers Kitchen, thebakerskitchen . net (remove spaces).

You certainly do not have to dowel dummy cakes. However, for peace of mind, in addition to the royal icing, you can poke holes in two places on the top and bottom of each dummy, insert some 5-inch skewers into the lower holes and thread your dummies over the skewers. They shouldn't go all the way thru the dummy. Just 2-1/2 inches thru the top and 2-1/2 inches thru the bottom.

Two sets of skewers will prevent 'spinning' if any of the dummies are naughty enough to break loose from the royal icing.