Hi,

I have an order for an 8" round extended tier with a 6" on top, all buttercream.  I will be treating it basically like a 3 tiered cake.  I plan to do 2 8" rounds, each 4-5 inches tall, stacked on top of each other to make the extended tier.  My thinking is I will torte, fill, and crumb coat each 8" round.  That makes 4 layers of cake and 3 of filling for each half of the extended tier.  I will place a 6" SPS plate & legs in to the bottom half of the extended tier, then have the 8" round that is the top half of the extended tier on a slightly smaller  (maybe 7.5") cake board & place that on to the SPS plate.  I will then chill & frost the whole extended tier with buttercream as if it is one 9-10" tall cake.  Once that looks good, I'll chill and put another 6" SPS plate and legs in to the top of the extended tier to support the 6" round going on top.  

Does this sound right?  

There will only be a few thin vertical rows of buttercream dots to decorate the extended tier, so not much to cover errors!  I am delivering the cake about 30 miles away.  Anything I can do other than chill, SPS, and box well to prevent the buttercream from cracking where the SPS support is in the middle of the extended tier?  If that happens, any suggestions on how to quickly fix it without having to redo the buttercream on the whole tier?

I use an ABC made with 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening, if that helps.

Thank you in advance!

AYour construction sounds good. Other than just making sure the extended tier cake settles properly with the supports in before frosting it, I can't think of any other tips for you apart from what you already said. I've only done extended tiers in fondant but I'm pretty sure nothing movde around during transport. I do smear some royal icing on top of the SPS plate to make double sure everything sticks though. Good luck!

Thank you!

When you mean settle with the supports in, about how long do you think it should sit?  I typically torte and fill, then let settle overnight with a weight on top.  Then trim and crumbcoat, which is when I would put the support in for this cake.  Do you think it will need to settle longer after that?  Makes sense that it might.

AYes, torte and fill as usual, settle cake, put columns and plate in, other cake on top, then wait a bit more...a couple or few hours maybe? I dunno...just let it sit at room temp a bit longer to double check the whole thing is nice and stable before decorating with your final coat. I wouldn't necessarily do this with a regular tiered cake but theres no risk of the BC cracking round the middle like there could be on this one, although I think it would be strange. But better safe than sorry and if you have time I would do it!