I am making a castle cake for my daughter's 4th birthday. We will have to move the cake approximately 45 miles. I am worried about the turrets on the top and sides of the cake falling over. I know that I will have to dowel the turrets on top, but what do I do with the ones on the sides.

I can just see me getting to the party and the side turrets tumbling over. Does ANYONE have any suggestions?

TIA

I just made a castle cake for my daughter's 4th birthday and had to drive it about 15 miles. I made the turrets out of Rice Krispy treats covered on fondant and relied on buttercream to "glue" them to the rest of the cake. Well the whole cake slid and shifted on the cake board while we were driving and the turrets separated from the cake so there were huge cracks at all the joints.

So hopefully you can learn from my mistakes Make sure the cake stays perfectly level while you are driving. Make sure the whole cake has some sort of non-slip surface (Press 'n Seal, that foamy shelf liner stuff, etc.) between it and the cake board. Bring an emergency kit with you in case there is any cracking during transport so you can cover any "issues" once the cake is in its final place.

Good luck! Be sure to post pictures!

Are the turrets going to be made of cake or are they going to be paper towel rolls or ice cream cones?? If they're going to be PT rolls or cones, you could use some RI to glue them to the board. Also you could wait to put them next to the cake until you get it to the destination. For cake, I would dowel them through the middle.

HTH!! Good luck!

we had to take my castle cake about 30 miles, and i bought those knitting needles that are as thin as toothpicks!! and i put them through like an X(4 needles) and they worked great! of course my turrets werent smooth fondant or anything so i could afford to poke holes through them! i just took them out as soon as i arrived and everything was fine

I made a big one for my grandson which needed to be carried by two people. For good support, I used a masonite board. For transportation I placed a rubber mat (the kind is placed to hold rugs) underneath it to prevent slipping. The turrets as well as the towers were secured with royal icing and dowells. Hope this helps, Good Luck!!!

I have a castle cake that I have done a number of times now and I have never moved it with them installed. I always deliver it and set it up on site. If you put all that work into it for your daughter, I don't think it is worth it to have a mishap at the last minute. I swear I would cry. Any way you could design your cake so that you could put it together at the last minute?

My turrets are actually made all of dried fondant so they are easy to transport (and install)- and totally edible!! I have directions if you are interested.

Good luck!

-Michelle

I was planning to make a castle cake this weekend as well. I had not considered needing dowels. I just thought it would all stay together, as I'm very new to this. I think I would cry too, if I got there and the cake had fallen apart. I was planning a small cake with a bottom of 9x9 square cake with a top layer of 8x8 round cake with 5 cupcakes and ice cream cones. Please tell if you the cakes you are discussing are larger of if I need to purchase dowels.

I also worry about the turrets falling. However my turrets are modelling paste only (no cake) & the side ones I first put a circle of royal icing under each, then I put a thin, neat sausage of fondant around each (secured to the cake board with royal icing or sugar glue) & press into the turrett softly. So far so good, though I still worry. Have a look at my castle pic in the fairytale comp. (I must post it on my page).

Silly me! My castle cake IS on my photo page (but not many others yet!)

Michelle ~ your cakes are absolutely beautiful and if you don't mind i would love to have the instructions for your cake... in fact, i printed the picture of your castle a couple of weeks ago... and put on my refrigerator as inspiration.

Awela ~ Thank you for the idea of using royal icing.... i always forget that royal icing is an option.

Fumanfyter ~ i would have never thought of knitting needles..... you are the reason i love this site.... someone is always more ingenious than me.

Fancymcnancy ~ Thanks for the tips.... they are great... i will do my best to learn from your adventures (never mistakes... always adventures).

Pscsgrrl ~ I was thinking of using cake.... but now I don't know what to do.... I'm so confused.... my mind is swimming now.... time for coffee and a session of drawing.

Mmgiles ~ The cake I am doing is going to be a little larger but i would suggest doweling yours anyway..... better be safe than sorry.

I'm making a castle cake right now too - for my daughter's 4th birthday! Luckily, I don't have to transport it. jekizer - when is your daughter's birthday? My daughter's was on the 10th.

I would suggest, that if you can, wait until you get to your destination before putting the tturrets on top (and possibly the ones on the sides too). You can use candy melts or royal icing to "glue" the side turrets to the board. Or drive dowels through each one into the board itself.

And yes, mmgiles - I would suggest you dowel your cake too. My castle cake is a 10" square and a 6" round and I am doweling the heck out of it. The weight of the turrets on top is enough to make the entire cake fall apart. Play it safe and dowel away!

Her birthday is on the 23rd we are having her party on the 21st. I am praying so hard.....

I've heard of people using a stack of oreo cookies covered in fondant for the turrets--I thought that was a clever way to get a nice, big, delicious tower! If you have enough time to ice them together with royal and let it dry, it should be rock solid and transport very nicely.

Jekizer- You are so sweet!!!! I didn't realize when I was making this cake it would turn out that so many people would like it! I will PM you the directions. It is really pretty easy, but very time consuming.

Remember to post your pictures when you are done!!!



-Michelle

Jekizer....

I made a castle cake this weekend and I was scared also....I doubled the cake board for added support. Then instead of PT roll and ice cream cones. I used styrofoam cones cut in half using only the top. For the turrets I used the styrofoam rods. I was able to use toothpicks to keep everything together. I stuck toothpicks into the sides of the rods and then secured them into the cake. Followed by icing at the seams. This was my first cake and I learned alot...Hope this helps you cake see the pic in my photos....Good luck...Kim

As you can tell, I am still a newbie and I do not know how to quote someone's message. Please forgive me. Someday I will be upgraded.

Hi all!! I don't get a chance to post here often, but I love all the tips & hints!! I just made a castle cake this weekend for a girl at work for her daughter's 1st birthday. I used the directions from Wilton's 2001 Yearbook, but scaled down a little. I used a double layer 12-inch petal for the base, with a double layer 6-in round on top of it, with a cupcake on top of that. I took regular size (not jumbo) ice cream cones, cut the bottoms off to make a hollow bottom, & hot glued sugar cones upside down on top of them (regular cone for top of tower, with sugar cones as peaks). I then covered the sugar cones with icing. Then, when everything else was done, I pushed the ice cream cones into the tops of the petal cake & cupcake. Luckily, I didn't have to transport it, the mom came to my house to pick up, but brought dad to hold the cake in the car.

Hope this helps!! I'll try to figure out how to post a pic in fairytale gallery so you can see how it came out. We were pretty happy with it!!

Thanks again to all of you with good ideas...you truly are appreciated!!

Brenda

Hi!! I am also planning on making a castle cake for my daughter's birthday in November. Msauer, could you please PM the directions of your castle cake?? Thanks!!

Msauer- I too am researching on how to do a castle cake for my sons second birthday July 1st.Will you please send me directions as well?

Using Msauer's instructions I made a castle cake. It was great fun and the kids loved it. I had to drive it 2 hours so I assembled it on site. Don't think it would have made the trip assembled. My towers were made from pastillage and I found some little lights at Walmart in the bridal section that I put inside each tower. Have fun with it and post pics afterwards

Jessicalee18

Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you...I've been laying on the beach at the Outer Banks in NC for the last week and was going through CC withdraw! I just pm'd the directions.

Make sure you take a look at meharding's cake- it was even more awesome than mine!!!!!!

Good luck with the cake and let me know how you make out!!!!

I to make my turretts from fondant with no cake and glued with sugar glue. The first one I made was on a board that was to thin and the cake cracked when I moved it so I made lots of blossom to cover the cracks, it was then taken 15 miles on 2 busses and the turretts where complete when she arrived. So my advice is use a thick board and glue the turretts.

I have made several castle cakes and have to make another this Saturday! I use two different kinds of icecream cones for the turrets....a kiddie cone for the bottom and an inverted sugar cone for the tops. I dip the sugar cones in candy melts and sprinkle them with sugar flakes to make them sparkle. I dowel the two on top of the cake so they're stable and I use a dab of candy melts on the bottom of the other turrets and "glue" them to the cakeboard....sets up like concrete! I also use candy melts to "glue" the sugar cones to the kiddie cones....they're not going anywhere!

There are several pics in my gallery.

Here is the castle cake. CC has been such a wonderful help. I would not have been able to do this with out everyones advice and support. Thank you CC.