Hello everyone,

I need some help. I"ve been asked to do a stand up Eiffel Tower that is due on Sunday, 3/13. I"ve been trying to research this and have pm'ed a few cake decorators on here, but since I"ve heard nothing yet.... I wanted to see what everyone else might say in the forums.

How is an Eiffel tower done? Do you bake in several pans? What sizes? Or can I bake an 11x17 and just cut and stack? What is easiest? I'm really not sure how tall to make it exactly. I do know that it will only need to feed about 20 people.

I need more info, Can someone help? Any instructions or tips would be great. I only use buttercream and mm fondant. I haven't really used much royal icing. Here's an example of what I'd like the cake to look like. This cake has the solid bottom, not the cut out 3D type... Lovely cake!!

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1885359

At this point, anything should help me!!!

You shouldn't have too much of a problem making this style.
My suggestion would be to bake the largest cake pan you have, you can always use the extra and its better to have extra than not enough.

If you are going to make it solid like the one in the picture-which I suggest is the easiest way to do it unless you are going to build a frame base then build on top of it. Build your layers, stacking them then cutting them to shape. I would make a pyramid type shape without the point. Pick up a piece of styrofoam in a long rectangle shape and cut the tip to make the tip. When you attach the foam to the cake with dowels crumb coat it then use your fondant to cover just like in the picture. Then add all your detail work.
Does that sound easy enough? lol
C

Here are instructions. This guy is the best.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18746870@N04/4892407676/

I remembered him today because of his Canon camera. He's here in CC, but I can't find his profile!

This is his profile at CC.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-forum-userprofile-801081.html

He's an engineer, and his pictorials on Flickr are just great.

Are you sure you would want a 11x17?

If I'm not mistaken, isn't the base dimension to the Eiffel tower a square? Just as an observation, I would say that would be wasting cake if you didn't stack square tiers and cut them.

Ok, so I think I"m going to use the square pans since that's the best suggestion. How tall should I make it? It only has to feed 20 people. Would a base size of 10 be okay to start with and then go smaller as I go up? Let me know.

If you only need to feed 20 people, why not make the top skinny pyramid part just a fondant/gumpaste shell.? You can get a lot of height that way without worrying about making/stacking extra cake. Or use RKT like the one in the pic you linked to.

eta: I just noticed that's how the instructions that imagenthatnj linked to said to do it. So I guess you were already planning on that part.

If you do a 10x10 to start, then stack maybe three cakes cut in half and filled that should be enough. Thinking you will get 25 2x2 pieces just out of the bottom layer, then maybe 16 out of the second and 9 out of the third, you should have plenty of cake.

When I suggested doing the foam I figured it would be the lightest and most stable way of making he peak.
C

My mum made this eiffel tower cake: http://juliewirthcakes.weebly.com/wedding-cakes.html

She used a extractor to get the fondant strips even, I think all the cake was fruit cake but I'm sure you can make the top half out of rice crispies if you needed to.

I used a 12 inch square base then a 10 inch layer, both carved at an angle with an 8 inch cake board over those 2 layers. Then add a full 8 inch square layer followed by 3 carved 6 inch layers with another board between the 4th and 5th layers. The second board is about 5 inches square. The lower 3 layers were 1 3/4 inches high and the top 3 were 1 1/2 inches high. All with about 1/4 inch of BC in between. All of this adds up to just over 11 inches high. I did use rice cereal for the top 19 inches but foam would be much easier to deal with. I considered this to be about 40 servings or more. They only requested 20 but I wanted it to be at least 30 inches high.
I have attached a drawing also.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18746870@N04/5515947669/
Good Luck
Rick (RDPJ Cakes)

Thank you for stopping by, rdpjcakes!

Just so that you know, attaching photos doesn't work most of the time in the forums. You would have to upload the photo to your gallery, or redirect us back to your flickr (link) if you put the drawing there.

That's some amazing tutorial you have.

Yes, I just figured out that my attachment wasn't working.

I did add it to Flickr

Thanks