I know you all are probably getting sick of all my questions, but the wedding is this weekend and I am getting so NERVOUS!!!

I'll refresh, this wedding cake will be outside under a tent (has all 4 sides) the reception will start approx. 6 pm (they are having a dinner first). The temp here is suppose to be 89 degrees that day.
The cake is 16",12",10" and 8" round. Okay, I am considering ordering some of the "dummy cakes" in case we have a disaster. DH only wants me to order the 16" but I was wondering if one collapses which one is it more likely to be? Which one would you all order?
I was also wondering about doweling, I will be using the wooden dowels. Can you put too many in? My mother-in-law also does cake (thats another story) says I need about 12-14 in the 16". How many do you put in?
Thanks for the advise.

Missy

The wilton books say how many dowels to use, I don't have mine right now, but I thought for heavier/bigger cakes, they suggested you use thicker plastic dowels. Perhaps some of the more experienced can comment??

Good luck!

They should have A/C in the tent, you might want to check to see. I know here in the northeast, they always suggest A/C with a tent rental because the body heat builds up. Of course, I just went to a wedding and it was a tent with no A/C, boy were we hot. And the cake was pathetic looking! I could have done so much better!!! ... but that's another story.

Hope it turns out well.

There's a really good link here on CC about doweling and stacking cakes. Check it out, it might be helpful for ya'!
http://cakecentral.com/article23-Teired-Stacked-Cake-Construction.html

I have a really stupid question...I've never done a stacked cake (as you will know once you read my question!! HA)
When doing stacked cakes, do you put EACH cake on a board before stacking them?

cakemomof3,

The more dowels the better!!For a large 16 inch I would put them every 2 inches apart.If the cake is going to collapse it will be from the weight of the top tiers so the bottom being a dummy wouldn't help!

Lori833179,

Yes ..I would put boards under each tier just slightly smaller than the cake itself so you can hide it with a border.This also helps for stability and cutting the cake evenly.

When i stack cakes I always put the cake on boards, I always pretent that there is not a cake that each layer is sitting on. Put enough dowels so the cake could stand with as little pressure on the other cakes as possible.

Very Helpful --- everyone is so awesome on this forum!!
Have a wonderful day!

Thanks everyone! The tent the family is using is from another family friend. From what I understand there will not be an a/c in there.

I would use the big dowels on the bottom cake as well..... I have a cake in August to do, and I'm going to give the bake the cakes ahead of time freeze them, and thaw them out the morning before the wedding then decorate it later on in the day when it's thawed....
I planned to do the basket weave, but I may end up using MMF... haven't decided yet....I hope all goes well with your wedding dear...
Happy baking,
cakegal

This got me thinking:

Has anyone out there used separator plates with hidden pillars cut to the height of the cake, for a STACKED cake? If you got the separator plates the exact size of the cake, you could cover them up with a border, right?

I would love to do this, because it seems like it would give the best support. Let me know if you have done this!! Thanks!

From what my mother-in-law has told me (she's been doing cakes for 20 years) is to use the seperator plates, cut the legs off and put the cakes on the side of the plate that had the legs. Use the holes on the other side of the seperator plate to secure at least 4 of the dowels in place (she also only uses the wooden dowels). I'm going to try it.
Also I'm going to use all shortening in my icing along with merigine (sp) powder.