Hi, lately I have been seeing some gorgeous photos of cakes displayed on cake stands. Most appear to be stacked directly on the cake stand. Usually I put my cakes on a 3/8 inch foam core display board, even if it will go on a raised stand, but I am loving the look without the board. For those of you who have done wedding cakes on stands, how do you go about stacking and transporting the cake? Do you do the bottom tier directly on the stand, and if so, how do you ensure it does not tip over in transport? Or do you put the cake on a temporary board for travel and then move to the stand on site? Just wondering what your preferred methods are.

Thanks!

ADo you mean these types of stands?[IMG ALT=""]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3266009/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]

I can only speak for myself, but when I post photos like these, [I]usually[/I] it's only on there for the photo, my stands generally do not go with the cake. However when I do rent them out, the cake is [I]usually[/I] not transported on the stand, it's on a decorated drum, and is placed on the stand upon arrival.

When I do build the cake on the stand, the bottom tier still gets the board of course, because I need to be able to move it around while icing, smoothing, covering in fondant, etc. I put down a piece of duct tape directly on the stand, and carefully place the bottom tier on, making sure it's centered. It's stuck like glue now, and won't be going anywhere. Then I stack as I would normally. I ask hubby to drive me to the destination, holding the cake the whole time. Or if it's a smaller one, I'll drive one handed, holding it still on top of a Styrofoam dummy with pieces of non skid mat underneath the stand, and another underneath the dummy, on the front seat of my car. :grin:

Edited for a gross amount of omitted words and general typos...sheesh.:(

I think she is referring to putting the cake directly onto the pedestal, without a cake drum or base. You would have to wait until arriving at the venue before placing and stacking directly on the pedestal.

Yes, I mean directly on the stand without drum or pedestal. @AZCouture For, example your beautiful aqua/white buttercream wedding cake that is directly on the wavy white stand. Did you stack on site? That can be tricky with SMBC. Thanks!

AI did the one handed trick with that one, my husband was out of town that day, so I had to handle that one myself. Luckily the art center is only two blocks from me...whew!:-D

AYeah, I can count on one hand the times I've stacked on site with a buttercream cake, smbc is darn difficult to handle unless it's straight out of the fridge.

@AZCouture I have a hilarious visual of you driving with your one handed cake rig! It sounds amazing and terrifying. Gotta love the behind the scenes stuff.

A

Nope.

A

Ha! A video camera would be pretty funny. There would be lots of bleeping over the audio! :-X