I am making my fonal cake for Wilton III, and she said we can do any shape size cakes, I wanted to stack mine instead of using the pillars and she said that is fine but she doesn't have much experiance with stacking.
I am doing a sports ball pan cake on top of a 9" round, would I need to dowel it?
and my second question is if I hadd pudding mix to the cake mix do I increase the amount of water or oil?
Thanks!
Barbara
I have done a sports ball cake, and I didn't dowel it. It was fine. As for the pudding mix question, I don't know. I always use Pillsbury cake mix with the pudding in the mix and just follow the directions. It's very moist and is a good texture for carving, etc.
Hi Barbara!
I put a sports ball on top of a 10in round (in my pics) and I used a board and dowels. You'll probably also want to use a dowel down thru both cakes for added stability since you will probably be taking the cake back home with you. The sports ball can be kind of tricky to work with so just take your time.
When I add a box of pudding mix I ignore the back of box instructions. I use 1 whole egg, 3 egg whites, 1/2c oil, 1 1/4 cup water/milk mixture and 1 tsp vanilla or other extract.
For cake mix, I add pudding mix an extra egg and increase the oil to 1/3 C.
If you weren't planning on moving the cake or serving them separately, you could get away without the dowelling and the boards. But you would want to serve these two separately you do need dowels and both cakes to be boarded. Most cakes can support the weight of another cake on top but serving becomes the issue. So does sliding if the cake will be moved.
For a cake of this size you could use plastic straws for your dowels, maybe 6-8 in the bottom tier. You let the icing set, place some powdred sugar on the lower tier in the area of where the upper tier will sit, I also place a parchment circle that I glue gun to the bottom of the upper tier's cardboard circle to insure the icing doesn't stick.
A centre dowel isn't as bad to do as it sounds. Just use a pencil sharpener or a paring knife to sharpen one end and a mallet or hammer to push it through the two cakes by tapping it through lightly.
If you don't want to see that centre dowel come through the top of the top tier you could mark the centre of the cake circle that the top tier sits on, make a smal hole the size of your centre dowel. Then insert the centre dowel in the middle of the lower tier, looking underneath the boarded top tier to line up the hole you made, thread the cake through.
Hugs Squirrelly
my bottom tier is going to be made of fondant, does that change anything??
Not really, just give it a chance to set up. Then dowel it. Always transport a cake by having non-skid shelf liner underneath the box so it won't slide. Be careful when braking.
Actually when you are covering the one cake with fondant and the other with buttercream, you should board the cakes separately because the buttercream can cause the fondant to break down when they are in direct conact for long periods of time. Also if you use a lot of colour on the buttercream cake, the colour can bleed out onto the fondant if there is a lot of contact between the two cakes.
Hgus Squirrelly
<Actually when you are covering the one cake with fondant and the other with buttercream, you should board the cakes separately because the buttercream can cause the fondant to break down when they are in direct conact for long periods of time. >
Why does a buttercream cake on top of a fondant layer break down the fondant when the fondant is sitting on top of a layer of buttercream already? I have never understood that. Also if you use fondant decorations on top of a buttercream cake wouldn't the decorations start to break down?
<Actually when you are covering the one cake with fondant and the other with buttercream, you should board the cakes separately because the buttercream can cause the fondant to break down when they are in direct conact for long periods of time. >
Why does a buttercream cake on top of a fondant layer break down the fondant when the fondant is sitting on top of a layer of buttercream already? I have never understood that. Also if you use fondant decorations on top of a buttercream cake wouldn't the decorations start to break down?
Good question!
Well, first of all you generally use 1/4 inch of fondant when covering a cake and normally use a thin layer of buttercream underneath it although there are those that do put a thicker layer of buttercream. So the issue is one of how thick the fondant is, how long the fondant is exposed to the buttercream, how long it has to start aborbing the extra fat in the buttercream and yes, there is generally shortening in the fondant that we use but not those quantities. Think of it as taking your ready make fondant and putting a cup of shortening and trying to knead that in, your fondant will get sticky and slimey. Well, same kind of reaction but over a period of time.
It may look the same but what happens when you go to serve is that the outside of your fondant will get a bit slimey where it has a long time in contact with the buttercream.
Same thing if you make fondant roses. First of all, the longer they dry the better because really well dried decorations that are thin and meant to keep a certain shape, will take longer to start aborbing that grease - maybe 2-3 days, with variables like if you refrigerate or if you seal up in a plastic container.
And yes, if you put thin fondant decorations on a buttercream iced cake they will get slimey in time, depending on the thickness of the fondant decorations and the length of time they sit there.
So with your fondant covered cake, well it has 1/4 inch thickness directly on the buttercream, so that takes a while to get absorbed even if you used a thick coating of buttercream underneath. Now you are placing buttercream borders or decorations, so the grease is also attacking from the outside.
Haha, oh yes, not made up by the way, known from experience and information well-distributed.
Think of it as adding an extra cup of softened butter to your buttercream, it will get soupy because you have too high a fat ratio to your sugar ratio. Or taking your royal icing roses and spraying them with water. Or trying to attach elaborate royal icing string work, mid-air on the side of a buttercream iced cake. Basically the recipe or composition of the recipe is being altered by what it comes into contact with. Just like if you add a whole lot of gel colour to your fondant, you have to add more powdered sugar to accomodate the extra liquid.
There is a saturation point for fats and liquids for all recipes. By having things in direct contact, you are affecting this point.
Ttry an experiment, make a fondant rose. Attach it to a cupcake or cake. Seal up the container for 3-4 days. Remove the rose, you will see that it may well still look intact, but when you remove it, it will be slimey. Since many folks are decorating cakes well in advance of the timeframe they need them in, this is a precaution.
Hugs Squirrelly
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