My son has volunteered me to make a cake for a women retiring from the library where he works. I am excited to do it for them but need some help. The cake will be a sheet cake 15x22 because my pan is a 15x11 and I am making 2 cakes and putting them side by side one will be yellow and the other chocolate. For the top of the cake I wanted to do two books stacked on top of each other. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could make these books???

I haven't done books yet, but if you do a search in the galleries for "books", you'll get some really great pics. PM the decorator, I'm sure someone can help you!

I did a search on the galleries the only books I found was whole cake made into books. I was looking for an idea to make smaller books as a decoration. Thank you for the suggestion I will PM someone and see how they made a big cake maybe I could use the same idea and just make it smaller. I was also thinking of covering cardboard with fondant but wondering if anyone else had any other ideas.

Sylvia Weinstock (not sure of spelling) has directions in her book for making a stacked book cake.

"I was also thinking of covering cardboard with fondant but wondering if anyone else had any other ideas."

I like to cover my boards with contact paper. It comes in so many designs and you don't need to add clear contact paper over it like you would have to if it was wrapping paper. I have used fondant also but it is much more expensive. HTH

This site had a picture of a couple of stacked books:
http://www.frostedart.com/SlideShow/Specialty/Spe2.htm

They also have some other neat pictures.

Here are directions for a cute cake with stacked books on top.

http://www.womansday.com/article.asp?section_id=13&article_id=5641&print_page=y

I've covered cardboard, well actually it was a square tissue box, with gumpaste. It was the base of my castle, (in my pics). I used royal icing to "glue" it to the box. Also, in my pics, the red robot monkey, well his body is a cardboard paper towel tube covered with MMF. It didn't stick to the cardboard, but at least helped keep the shape of the body until it dried. Depending on the size you want, maybe those tins, like Altoids come in, could make a base for the books. You could also cut styrofaom to the size you need and cover that with fondant. HTH

Thanks everyone for the tips and ideas. I knew I could find help here. Still not sure wether to use cake or cardboard. Last night went to Michaels and found paper mache boxes shappes like books. Thought they might be neat covered with fondant. I was wanting the books to be about the size of a paperback. I also thought styrofoam but the few times I have used it for demos I had a hard time making it look smooth.

I personally would be more inclined to make the books out of something edible....what size are you looking for???? Judging by the size of your cake I would assume you want something big...like a realistic size for books....I would just bake a normal rectangular cake...maybe a 9x13 or something....and cut it in half and use each half for a book...then cover them with BC or whatever and maybe a fondant binding and cover!! Then it would be easy to write on the "book" whatever you wanted....maybe even something about the lady you're honoring "The Dedication of ____" or something..