OK..a bit embarrassing but...I HATE to have to assemble a cake on site. Reason?? My fingers...every time I try and place the next tier above the last I always seem to mess up the icing below with my fingers. I just can't seem to get that next tier on and centered without messing the one under it up.
No biggie when I can cover the mess with some piping but it is real trouble when I want a clean, no border look.
Anyone with fat fingers want to give me some advice??Anyone with skinny fingers want to give me some advice?? I'm getting tired of lugging 4 tier assembled cakes to venues. My back will go out next.
Okay this is a cut and paste I am quoting tcturtleshell. This tip has helped me so much!!
"This is how I learned to do it & it is VERY simple. When you stack a cake you need to put the cake board underneath the cake, same size or a little smaller. I do a little smaller. Put dowels in the cake on the bottom to support the top cake. Don't push your dowels into the bottom cake all the way. Center the top cake where you want it, sit it on the dowels & let it go removing your fingers semi quickly. The cakes weight will push the dowels all the way down. If not just press the top cake lightly. It's very easy if you do it this way. Never any mess ups. Sometimes I decorate my cake before stacking but most of the time I don't decorate untill it's stacked. Good Luck! You can do it!! "
This for me was a great idea in theroy, this is a bit long. As I had never done it before and had to have a quick answer to stack buttercream cakes and fondant at the same time I needed tlo do something so I didn't mess up the buttercream. I looked on this site and bingo a great answer to my problem. Like I said in theory. I really think this is a great idea but I would suggest that you try it more than once to make sure you get it right. I am only saying this because I did not try it first and just did it under some stress and stuffed it. Although it did not look too bad and not a lot of people could tell, I could and was totally dissapointed then with the whole cake and I really wanted this one to be great because it was my nephews wedding cake and I stuffed it. To me this cake turned out to be my cake from hell. Oh and I have fat fingers.
I always take some icing and bits and pieces to make any running repairs incase I need to. If I was in this position again I would use this method but try and use damage control before doing it.
The problem I can up against was that I didn't get my dowels the right size as I didn't want to actually stick the dowel in to measure which I normally do with fondant and don't have to worry that some of the icing will lift off. I normally use a piece of paper and fold it so that I get the dowel in the right place but again with buttercream, can't use this method.
I have to work out a way to do this with buttercream but I don't normally get orders for buttercream but again one day it will happen and I don't want to get stuck again.
Its not that I hate buttercream its just most people here in Australia are not big on buttercream. When I started cake decoarting it was with buttercream and then I learnt to use fondant and have never really gone back to buttercream. Or as it was suggested to me real icing. Each to their own.
Honey, I don't know if your fingers are fat, or not, but I can say with 100% certainty that mine are. In fact, I have Man hands...(and my DD chest confirms that I am not a man.) So, I guess I will need to be careful with stacked cakes, too! (Btw...I am not an amazon woman, just a weeble wobble! LOL)
Honey, I don't know if your fingers are fat, or not, but I can say with 100% certainty that mine are. In fact, I have Man hands...(and my DD chest confirms that I am not a man.) So, I guess I will need to be careful with stacked cakes, too! (Btw...I am not an amazon woman, just a weeble wobble! LOL)
LOL Can only agree whit that... I'm not a perfect small either LOL
I always push the dowels all the way in to make sure the height is correct then using needle nosed pliers (used only for cakes) I pull the dowels back up an inch or so and place the next tier on top. I found that with smaller tiers the weight of the cake won't necessarily push the dowels down into the lower cake - Pushing them all the way in helps insure they will. I've also had to slightly lift the bottom plate and tap it down (by dropping) to get the top to settle all the way in.
Debbie
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