I am making a Nantucket Basket purse cake for my mother's 90th birthday. Some questions I was wondering about.  It will be a total of 6 layers with mocha buttercream in between each chocolate/espresso cake layer.  Do I need dowels through the layers to hold them together?  I need to carve the bottom of the cake to curve it in a the bottom.  Any advice?  

I have the shell, wood piece on which to place the shell, handle, closure pin all made from gumpaste.  I am very proud of them!

I have never done a basket weave piping on a cake.  I have been practicing.  Any advice??  Should I ice the cake a different or lighter brown and pipe over with a darker color or vice versa?

Any advice is so appreciated!  I love to bake, but this is a big undertaking for me!

wow -- 90 years old -- what an awesome celebration for you all --

i carve on cold/frozen cake  - maybe 1-3 skewers stuck through the cake into the bottom board is not a bad idea to keep things stable -- i would cover the cake in darker icing or the same color before doing the basket weave and i would ice it like you spread mayonnaise on bread -- real thin --

and be sure you are adhering the basketweave onto the cake --smoosh it on there good or it can peel right off -- you could refresh the crumb coat a bit so it's remoistened if it crusts up in the meantime -- just run the spatula over it or add a tid tad more icing if it has crusted on you and run the spatula over it to remix it up -- but pipe aggressively-- fire it in there as the old saying goes :D

please post any more questions if anything comes up -- what a wonderful occasion -- congrats on the success on the gum paste pieces -- post a picture of cake + momma

best to you!

Thank you so much for those great suggestions.  What do you mean by smooshing it on?  I am going to practise all week on a styrofoam cylinder so that I can get more of the hang of verticle piping.  

I am sure I will have MANY more questions!!

Thank you so very much.  I will take pictures of Mom and cake!

make sure the icing is not just flowing out of the tip of the bag looking good -- you want to be squirting it firmly onto the surface when it's got to stick to the side and defy gravity for you like in a basketweave --

sometimes people do not stretch the icing when they pipe -- they let it flow and this works for borders and piping on the top of the cake but doing basket weave is not the time for that kind of limp wimpy piping -- because it can roll off -- kwim

Thanks.  I am going to practise tomorrow night and the next night - cake is for Sunday.  I will take it out of freezer on Friday.  I guess I will carve it and then fill it and crumb coat and refrigerate.  I am going to a wedding on Saturday, so I won't actually get the basket weave completed until Sunday.  Does that sound reasonable??