With an assembled wedding cake (dowels included), how do we cut it? Do we take it apart and remove the dowels, if so, how? I need some help on this one badly! Someone please help me!

Anybody?!?!

Hi Calejo, sorry I can't help, I haven't done a wedding cake as yet, I'm hoping someone will answer too, so I'll get the information along with you. Janice

Hi Calejo,

Check out this site: http://www.pastrywiz.com/wedding/wedding23.htm
for a guide to cutting a wedding cake. If the bride is keeping the top tier for their anniversary, take that off and put it aside. Next start with the next size cake and cut it according to the above site. I hope this helps.

Mary Ann

Ok, here is a cutting guide that will help you.

http://www.baking911.com/cakes/cutting_guide.htm

I transport all seperately and assemble on site, so I didn't put the dowel through the middle
If you are going to put the dowel through the center, make sure that it sticks out a bit (if you have room) that way you can pull it out and then serve.

Someone has also told me that they pull of the layer with the dowel still in. I wouldn't trust myself enough to do that.

BTW, just cut, you will find the dowels then remove.

To the rescue !!!!!
As what we were told in class at the CA CUlinary ACademy by my instructor, the cake needs to be disassembled, remove dowels then cut...
DO you know the right way to cut a wedding cake ? Just in case you don't, it is NOT cut like a Birthday Cake, NOT wedges, because wedding cake slices are suppose to be thin but tall, that's why wedding cake layers are made very tall. It's cut in rows. I hope this helps.
EMoore

OK, I have one more question... and I'm sure this should probably be pretty obvious, but if you're putting a dowel through the top, there's going to be a hole there, right? So, if I'm doin fondant, or a cake with no topper, the hole is going to be pretty apparent, even if "patched". How do I avoid or fix that without it being obvious if the tiers are decorated before being stacked?

Well, for my own wedding cake, we did the following:

For the bride/groom cutting the cake photo thing we cut a tiny sliver from the bottom tier. The cake was still stacked. We shared that piece for the photos.

Then I unstacked the cake and moved aside each layer. I had decided we would cut the bottom layer first as it would serve the most people. I removed all the dowels by hand, though pliers might have been easier. For more sanitary removal, the cake cutting person wearing the gloves might be best.

I used the chart from EarlinesCakes.com for the cutting, which I think is MUCH easier than what you can get on the Wilton site. It is basically horizontal cuts across the cake, but not all the way across. Just do one and then cut out slices vertically from the front. Then cut the end slice off and then the next horizontal cut. I did the first part of it and showed my cousin that and the diagram and she did the rest of the cutting of the cake for our guests.

If you want to cover up a center dowel hole, you can put a rose or chocolate shell or whatever on top. You could also use a regular cake topper or flowers.

I did not use a center dowel on mine, I just used the recommended number of dowels per layer, which was like 12 on the bottom (14" layer), 9 or 10 on the next one (12") and 6 on the 8" layer. I had to cut the sticks with wire cutters, which was a pain!

Best of luck!
AngelW

Well, I thread this centre dowel through the underneath of cake, not from the top down, always have.
So I mark a hole directly in the centre of the cake boards and cut this out to be big enough to pass a centre dowel through, I basically punch the end of a scissors or a screw driver to enlargen the marked centre to make the hole. Then I board all of the cakes. Mark a hole in the centre of the bottom cake.
Measure the thickness of all of the boarded iced cakes. Then I cut a dowel just slightly shorter than this total. Now you can even do say a centre dowel for cakes 4 and 3 and a centre dowel that passes through cakes 1, 2 and 3, of course this one would have to be slightly off centre.
So I take a piece of dowel and insert it through the bottom of each of the upper tiers so that the hole comes through the top of all the cakes but the top cake.
Anyway, you insert your cut centre dowel in the centre of the bottom tier. Have an extra pair of hands hold it in place, now looking underneath to line up the centre hole of your cakes, thread the dowel through from the bottom through the top. Have extra hands again hold dowel in place and continue, threading through each cake from underneath until you reach the top cake. Re check that the remaining length of the dowel will not come through the top of the final top cake and thread it through.
I don't like the sharpened dowel method of tapping through cakes, especially when they are double boarded and there are several layers, so this works best for me.
Of course you could always go the traditional way, just make certain your centre dowel is shorter than the height of all the cakes, tap it through from the top down and just thread it through the bottom of the top tier so as not to make a hole in the top of that cake.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

I like that idea of making the holes in the board first and threading them from bottom up.. Sounds good!

Thanks, Squirrelly Cakes!!

~AngelW

You are most welcome! Haha, leave it to me to do thing half--- backwards, haha!
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Squirrely cakes, you are a life (and headache) saver! The Wilton courses don't teach enough, if you ask me. No one ever tell you how to serve the cake, just how to stack it.

Would you sharpen the top point just to make sure it goes through the top cake (not board, obviously) smoothly?

I take my whole long wooden dowel and use a kid's pencil sharpener on it. It is really pointy!!

Calejo, heehee, sometimes I am a headache maker!
My problem with most of these decorating courses, is that they do not go into the baking of the cakes or the serving or how to do many of the things. I think there is an assumption that if you take a decorating course you already know how to bake the cake you will be decorating and this just doesn't seem to be the case these days.
I have taken two one day courses a couple of years ago, not Wilton, only courses I ever took. Anyway, they gave you the cake flat-iced, they gave you ready made buttercream icing. So flat-icing the cake wasn't covered, nor was levelling or anything to do with baking. They showed Royal Icing flowers done with buttercream, so you didn't learn the correct consistency of Royal Icing nor did you learn the way Royal Icing flowers are made when using Royal Icing. They didn't cover much, nothing in fondant or gumpaste at all. Anyway, it was so rushed around breaks and lunch etc., that I came away feeling like I had learned almost nothing. But the decorator was an excellent decorator, that was obvious.
From what I hear, some Wilton instructors are really knowledgable and excellent and others are not, it is really a crap shoot if you will get a good one or not. Some give really bad advice and some don't know what they are doing except that they can decorate. Some don't have a clue about safe food handling practices, how to bake, things like that. I think the hiring criteria is not stringent enough.
Not sure I understand your question. I am as dense as a chocolate cake today, haha! It has to go through the board, do you mean so it doesn't go through the very bottom board?
When I do this upside down, I don't actually sharpen the dowel, only when I do it the normal way, haha, which isn't often. I will use the normal method for two tiers, generally, not for more than two and then I do sharpen the dowel, but I also prepare the cake boards with a hole and make a hole in the cake centre before inserting it.
For the other dowels - the support dowels - that are inserted in cakes, I follow Labrat's method. She was the first person to describe inserting your measured and cut dowels into the cake layer but leaving them up a bit so you could gently drop the tierfrom slightly above the cake and the weight of the cake would push the dowels so that they were level with the cake. The purpose of not inserting them all the way, is to allow you to get your fingers out of the way so you don't muck up the icing. This works well.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

SquirellyCakes, I.... I think I love you.

Thank you SO much for your help. I've only done 2 wedding cakes in my life (both 2 tiers) so I REALLY needed to know about what to do if... (fill in blank here). I also agree with you, which is why I'm asking all of these questions. I want to be able to know and do all of these things before I teach anyone else about it.

Thanks again.

Calejo, just saw this, haha, you know there is nothing quite like feeling loved AND SOMEONE AGREEING WITH YOU, HAHA!, to make your day, haha! Thanks!
I think the more we ask questions, the better off we are.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

I tried it squirrelly's way and it works great. Lowering each cake onto the dowl is a good way to go. I did it that way until I bought the stress free support system. Now I don't need a dowl, but I glad I gave it a try.