Hello,

I am making my first wedding cake for a friend.

It is a four tier stacked (no pillars) fruit cake (25,20,15,10cm). There will be a total of 18 plastic dowels in the cakes. The recipe requires each cake to be placed on a thick cake board and then placed on an thick iced base board. Each section will be secured with a little royal icing.

Do I need a centre dowel as well? I am not sure if I can get one large enough and am not sure how it will fit through so many thick cake boards without damaging the cake.

The decoration is quite simple (no intricate flowers or anything). It is a bow that flows across all the tiers so it must be transported stacked.

I will carry the cake to my car (I will park it as close to the door as possible) - any tips in getting such a heavy cake to the car without damaging it will be appreciated.

The back seats will go down for ventilation and it will sit on a non slip matt in the boot section (where it is flat). I will of course be careful driving but will this be enough?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Emma

I know  a lady, that i take demos with at ices convention. She laughs at us (shes from canada(love her demos, etc) for putting a center dowel. she dowels each tier, then she secures her fondant tiers with r/i. no center dowel. There is a system(directions on this site called single plate system. many decorators use these. i have also.  check out the single plate system. hth

AHi, I have searched on this site and the Web and feel a bit confused as to how it works...although everyone who has used it appears to love it. Although it is apparently cheap it is for a friend and don't think I can afford any additional cost. I am making my own wedding cake next year so may be the perfect time to try if I can future it out! Lol. The woman you referred to does she use only dowels and royal icing or the system or ?. Thank you much for ths advice, Emma

ASorry that should be figure and both.

Kill the dowels idea.  This is all you need:

http://www.globalsugarart.com/bakery-crafts-pillars-plates-sps-system-c-886_887.html

A 4 tier is heavy.  You will need help getting it into your vehicle.

if you're concerned about the weight, why not stack it on site? or stack it in two pieces and assemble it onsite.

The SPS is available on oasissupply,com  The beauty of the system is that it's very sturdy and if your tiers are 4 inches in height, you don't have to cut anything, so you have a much higher chance of your cake being level once it it assembled.  

AAnnie thank you for the useful link and and the weight advice ~ I will make sure I get help.

Ella I cannot stack on site because of the way the decoration lies across the cake. I am a bit worried! Although I think I understand the SPS system better now :)