I'm doing my sisters wedding cake out of town (almost 3 hours away). I have always torted my cakes so I had at least 3 layers of cake seperated by 2 layers of fillings. Would the cake hold up better in travel with only 2 layers of cake and 1 filling? It seems like it might be more stable...but, I might be wrong about that. I use to only do 2 layers (as can be seen in the wedding cake I have pictured in my photos that I did 10 years ago). But, I really prefer the look of the taller cakes that I do now (closer to the 6 inch mark). Is that too tall to travel well? Also, this is a 6 tier stacked cake(no visible pillar or plates)...does the taller individual cakes make it any less stable when constructed? Also, she wants the bottom 16" to be a dummy (since she doesn't NEED more cake to feed alot of people..just wants the "look" of the bigger cake.) Do I literally just set the "real" cake on top of the decorated cake dummy? Or does it need to be doweled too (if that's possible). Also, how do keep your dummy still when you are smooth frosting it? I haven't done one in a really long time ~ and it seems like I remember the dummy sliding all over the place when I was trying to smooth frost it. Any thoughts?
TIA for all your help. Kristen
I hope I'm saying this all right...I REALLY want her to have a beautiful cake.
If the dummy is the cake at the bottom, you can just set the real cake on top of it, no need to dowel. To keep the dummy from moving around while icing it, apply a small amount of icing on the bottom. I also place my dummies on a cake board (foam core) to keep it the same height as the real cakes.
How big is your dummy cake? I'm assuming 4", because I've rarely seen 6" ones, so that being said, I would probably recommend keeping the cakes at 4" in height. I say this for two reasons, I think that will be a lot easier to travel with (causing less shifting during travel) and give the 6 tiered cake more stability. I too like the look of tall cakes, but I think with this many tiers, you need extra stability. Good luck, I'm sure you're do a great job!
With my dummy cakes, I always nail them to the cake board. For example, I stick the dummy to the board with icing, then flip the whole thing upside down and push long nails or screws through the board into the dummy. They won't budge an inch this way!
How big is your dummy cake? I'm assuming 4", because I've rarely seen 6" ones, so that being said, I would probably recommend keeping the cakes at 4" in height. I say this for two reasons, I think that will be a lot easier to travel with (causing less shifting during travel) and give the 6 tiered cake more stability. I too like the look of tall cakes, but I think with this many tiers, you need extra stability. Good luck, I'm sure you're do a great job!
From this and the original post, I get the impression that some of you are transporting cakes completely stacked together. Is that true? hsmomma's reception is about 3 hours away ... I would never travel that distance with a cake tiered up in my car. Too many opportunities for disaster! 
If you want to travel with tiers already stacked, I would recommend stacking no more than 2 tiers together, of course doweled and stabalized as well as you can. I feel that this would make it much easier on setup, too, as it's not nearly as heavy to move, and you won't need extra hands to help you, especially if they're not available. I think it's really difficult to move an extremely large, incredibly heavy cake up stairs, down ramps, around corners and the like and so I prefer not to do it that way if I don't have to. This way, you can have the taller tiers you prefer, too.
Myself, I prefer to set up at the site, skewering the tiers together there, if necessary. I fail to understand why the Food Network makes its cake bakers in the challenges move a cake all set up! I have NEVER done it that way, nor would I! In the words of Robin Williams: that's just insane! 
Allow me to play "Devil's Advocate" for just a minute, will you? What happens if you have a dowel support cut and/or placed so it is just the slightest bit "off"? If the support is not completely perpendicular to the board, and you have 50 or 75 or 100 pounds or more of cake balanced on top, it could really spell disaster! In fact, the slightest vibration from your delivery vehicle (either from the motor, a vehicular shimmy, a bumpy road, another car cutting you off or - God forbid - hitting you), and that not-quite-perfectly-straight support now has all that weight bearing down upon it, moving it more and more off the straight. Compound that with your 3-hour drive and you might be lucky to have something salvageable when you arrive.
Maybe I'm off base, but I would much rather err on the side of not having any kind of problem with alignment when I take such an important delivery to its final location.
(okay, stepping down off my soapbox now ... must be a PMS kind of day ... 
)
Odessa
. Good luck!
I don't think I'd be brave enough to take a larger tier cake assembled but I've transported 2 tiers 6 hours over bumpy roads, road construction, etc.
I'd make the cakes all the same height, if the dummy is 4" than the rest might look funny being 6". If your sister is just buying supplies and you want the taller cakes tell her you want to make them all real, it won't cost that much more and there are always family members willing to take extra cake home to freeze.
Thank you all for your help and advice! It didn't even dawn on me (I feel like an idiot) that duh..my cakes need to be the same height as my dummie. Oh my gosh...how did that not even cross my mind???
I planned on transporting it completely unassembled. I've never taken one assembled even in the same town. Even the two tiered one I did last week (that traveled an hour) went unassembled.
Thanks for all your help....your experience helped me out!
I've got another question, but, I'm going to post it along with the picture in a new topic...
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