How do you think the books are kept standing? What supports? I have pm'd the author a few days ago but I haven't gotten a response yet

I was thinking horizontal doweling? or something like that?

Also, the school colors are maroon and gold...what would be good colors for the books? any ideas? every color I can think of seems to clash as a chair.

...but what do you think about stacking 3 books (reading, writing, & arithmetic) with owl on top? would also fix the support problem.

Cake is due Sat. evening.

Thanks for looking!!

bump

Could you provide a link to the instructions? I am not familiar with the article.

Here it is...hope you can open it. If not, go to Articles and scroll down until you see it.




http://www.cakecentral.com/article52-Sculpted-Cake-How-to-Make-a-3D-Owl-Cake.html

I would say dowel the side and back books into the bottom book and then again into the owl body. That's just a guess. Anyone???

I think your idea about stacking the books is a great one! The cake would be just as impressive, if not more so, because of the heighth. You could make one of the books brown (just for something different) and the other two books, maroon. You could have gold binding on the spines of your books and maybe writing in gold (school name, a date, person's name on one of the books?). Also, with the stacked books you'd have an easier time transporting the cake . Good luck and please post pics when you're done!

Hi,

The back and side books for the owl cake did not have dowels, only the owl itself. The key is that I used a very dense cake (Paula Dean's sour cream pound cake found on the Food Network site), and made each layer very thick. Along the bottom, I cut the cake so it would lean slightly inward. For example:

Left side book:

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This is a little more steep than I cut the book, but it was the best I could show with text!

If you cut the books so they lean inward and then put lots of frosting underneath it should be fine! Also, it helps to overlap the fondant that covers the books and "glue" it together with vanilla flavoring. I did not cover the books with fondant until they were stacked. Dark green or brown leather-look books would look great with maroon and gold! You can get a nice leather look by making chocolate fondant, then painting on diluted brown coloring and blotting with a paper towel.

I hope this helps!

Nightowl

Thanks everyone!!