Hi, I have a large 5 tier cake coming up with two sugar flower separators. As if that wasn't hard enough already, the client wants a vase/pedestal topper with more sugar flowers. I have seen a lot of cake artists use real pedestals/vases for the top and all say its easy enough to just dowel the cake it will be sitting on for support. I am still scared to death it will just topple over so I would like to construct it with Styrofoam so I can stick a dowel directly into it and stab it into the cake to stay put.  Does anyone have any experience with how to create a styrofoam vase/pedestal or can someone put me at ease with using a real vase/pedestal on top?  thanks so much!  

you can buy a foam cutter either at hobby lobby/michael's or at http://hotwirefoamfactory.com/ 

hot wire foam factory has a lot of information on how to do it too --

i've just sculpted foam with a kitchen knife but it's easier with a hot wire knife

you can buy them at dallas foam http://www.dallas-foam.com/cake-dummies/balls-half-spheres-cylinders.html or check out their separators too 

they also make anything you want 

if the table the cake is on is stable the cake will be stable with a vase on top of it -- you could set a real vase on a dummy cake too --

plus margaret braun gives great instructions in her book Cake Walk on how to make chalises which is a hop skip and a jump to a vase -- i'm thinking that colette has a vase pattern but not positive...i could check if you want me to--

yeah colette's got at least two in "colette's wedding cakes" on e is solid with strawberries in it and the other is a lattice piped vase then i found another on page 33 her oriental apple blossom cake -- this one she makes out of sugarmolds -- i can pm you some instructions if you want --

thank you so much! You are so helpful. I would love if you can PM the instructions to me.  Thanks so much!