What kind of cake do you use when making sculpted/ 3d cakes? will a box cake, like betty crocker be ok? what is the secret to carving them without having them fall apart? Thanks!!

You need to use a dense cake for sculpting cakes. Do a search for
Durable Cake for 3D and Wedding Cakes in the recipes.
I am no expert on this. But when I did mine, I put it in the freezer for a few hours before I sculpted it. Maybe some of the pros here will jump in.
Sharon

I use Duncan Hines and I'm pretty sure somewhere on the box it tells you how to make it a "pound" cake, by adding pudding mix and another egg. Unfortunately I am not at home to make sure. It just makes it a bit more dense. Anyway, I also freeze my cakes before I carve them. I usually use a serrated knife also. Then once the cake is in the shape you want, crumb coat it while it is still frozen. Then I let it come to room temp before icing or adding any MMF. Toothpicks and dowels are always handy for support too!! HTH!!

i use a homemade pound cake recipe for my sculpted cakes. i find that works best because it produces less crumbs and is more dense. i also rely on a lot fo support! i use dowels and foam board for the bases between layers.

Doctored cake mixes with pudding, sour cream and extra egg work very well for sculpted cakes. Pound cake is also ideal. And don't forget crispy rice treats! They can be great for difficult shapes. Lastly, gumpaste works great for details like ears, etc.

When I did my sculptured cakes, I used cake mix, but varied it with the cake recipes in the Debbie Brown's cartoon cake book. I guessed on what I thought the measurement for the dry ingredients would be for the cake mix, plus added this to what the receipe in her book called for to make up the total amount of the dried ingredients. Not a real specific science. Any way, most of her receipes called for a sponge type cake, and that seemed to be how these cakes ended up. They seemed to taste pretty good too. I also tried freezing my cakes a bit, but really didn't freeze them enough to keep the frozen throughout the sculpturing process. I wish I could be more specific with a receipe, but am really unable to do so, because I don't usually stick with a specific receipe. One thing I do know is you need a dense cake to sculpture, and pound like cake is probably the best texture. I'm still very new at sculpturing cake and am still working on my sculturing skills,

I was browsing through this post and I am also interested on the answers.

So far I do recipes like sponge cakes or madera cakes that allow easy sculpting, problem is: they always come out sooooo dry!

How do I get them moist? I've heard about a simple syrup method, would this work?

Also, if I freeze cake just after baking, should I sculpt it before freezing or when it's gone harder?

Sorry for my multiple questions!

Oilili
I'm not sure about the simple syrup method. I think if you want a sure fire way to have a good tasting and moist cake, go with a sour cream pound cake recipe. Most pound cakes a moist, but dense enough to stand up against the sculturing. I myself LOVE the taste of a good old fashion pound cake. But what I have found, is pound cake is usually too dense for most people. Most of my cakes are a little dense I am told. But I don't like cakes that have a lot of crumbs Also, I would wait until after I freeze the cake to sculture it. I think the reason for this is because you have a much more solid surface for sculturing. If you sculture and freeze, most times the carving could makes the cake just a little weak. This could lead to your hard work being smashed out of the shape you carved it in. Remember, carving is like setting up the skeloton, the fondant or frosting, along with the shading of color are what is really going to make your piece stand out. Listen to me, I sound like I really know what I'm talking about (not...)Hope what little knowledge I can share helps though!

thanks Flowers 40. The more I go through the posts, the more I tell myself I should start freezing my cakes.