When you cut SPS legs, they still fit into the bottom of the plate and you actually have a little bit of forgiveness room. But the legs and plates are still locked together and still act as a unit. Really you need to see the system to understand. It's impossible to describe fully. There's a bit of forgiveness to the whole system, unlike dowels, where there's just no foregiveness for a mistake.

I'm sorry, but IMO if I was the caterer that was cutting a cake and was told to "cut to the buttercream" and lift that out and plate it, I'd be so pissed I'd probably tell the bride to cut it herself. What a complete mess that's going to be. If the bride wants larger than usual slices of cake then a) she needs to buy more cake and b) she still needs to do things in a way that will allow others (the caterer) to do their job efficiently. And seriiously, most people at a wedding want a smaller piece, not a larger piece. Again just my opinion, but I do have a wee bit of experieince on this topic.

And just for a little fun with math, a normal , industry standard size wedding slice is 1" X 2" X 4", or 8 cubic inches.

Your bride is proposing a 3" X 3" X 3" slice which is larger, 9 cubic inches.
That's a lot of mess for 1 cubic inch more. Picture it - the difference is a cube of cake 1" X 1" X 1". About 1 bite.

If you bride wants large slices, all you need to do is increase the width of the standard slice. A 1.25 wide cut (2" long and 4" tall) will yield 10 cubic inches of cake. And will allow the caterer (or who ever cuts the cake) to cut in a standard, normal manner.

However, she still has to pay for the additional cake,.

omg, you've got to be freakin' kidding me!

I actually had to cut a cake like that once. Another baker did the wedding cake and groom's cake (I did the catering). The groom's cake was a beautiful R2D2 ... magnificent work. It was 6 or 8 layers of cake with not one cardboard between any of the layers!!! I'm surprised the cake made it to the reception. Since I hadn't made the cake, I had no idea how it was constructed, so it was a big guess job on how I was going to cut it. Some guests were standing around saying "we want to see how you're going to cut this one!" I said, 'You and me both!"

Once I figured out there were no cardboards .... no stopping points..... I just had to cut down to a point and remove the cake piece. Good thing I always bring food safety gloves to every job ... this was the biggest freakin' mess I had ever seen! Gooey icing on the top AND bottom of each piece, pieces not cut as uniform as my wedding cakes are, I'm scared to death this cake was going to topple over at any minute since it was just a bunch of cake on cake. "Eye Appeal" is the first factor in food presentation, and this cake, once cut, didn't have it.

I felt sorry for the bride because her guests were served ugly, messy cake.

btw, this is the same wedding where I get my famous story about the wedding cake having 12 dowels inside a 10" cake. The cake maker was talented but didnt' know a whole lot about cake construction!!

I'm telling you ..... you send cake cutting instructions like that to this caterer, and trust me ..... you will be the talk of the catering community as a cake maker they DON'T want to mess with ... because your cakes will be deemed "a mess". I dont' care how pretty it is on the outside.

This is a great example of why I stress the value of every cake maker cutting at least 2-3 of their own cakes once in awhile. You've GOT to understand how the way you construct a cake affects the way the cake is cut and served. If you had to cut this cake like you're suggesting ... trust me again ... you'd never construct a cake like this with those cutting instructions.

And I also must agree with leahs on the center dowel being false security. I've transported cakes stacked with a center dowel and while I praise the extra 'security' on my one hand ..... the one slider cake I had (when I had to slam on my brakes) was a stacked, center doweled cake. The cardboard stayed in place just fine .... but the cake slid right thru the dowel, like leahs said. So while I find them helpful .... they are not the save-all.

So Leahs and Indydebi, what do you guys do when a person wants the tiers to be 6" tall (or more) instead of the popular 4" height? I see these tall tiered cakes a lot, especially on this site.

It's a family wedding so I'm doing the cutting. The country club is just supplying the ice cream. But honestly, serving the cake has never been an issue in the past.

In fact I posted a little while ago about how I made a 2 layer 1/2 sheet b-day cake and the venue staff were only cutting down to the filling, which resulted in way too much cake being left behind. I had to quickly tell them to give the "whole" slice, we were only feeding 40 and they were cutting enough to feed 80 for crying out loud .

As far as transporting I never stack and travel, especially tall tiered cakes. I assemble on-site. It's easier and much less stressful.


As far as my name being "ruined" among caterers....cake making is not how I make my living, every cake I make is for family or friends and friends of friends. This cake will probably take me anywhere from 15 - 20 hrs to bake and decorate. That's why I stick to Hairdressing and do cakes as a fun hobby. Even more fun when I get paid

Although I'd like to add I have the utmost respect for those of you that make your living baking and decorating cakes. The average non-baker has no idea what goes into this business, they think it's just whip up a cake and be done with it.

Because Indy and I are in big cities maybe things are different for us. You really need to be a licensed caterer to supply food (including cake) to the public, so a country club (around here) would be nuts to even allow a hobbist to bring in a cake. The caterer/club staff, again around here, would be the only ones touching the food, primarily for liability reasons, so family members wouldn't be cutting the cake.

But to get back to your original question, I don't do 6" tall tiers and I would politely explain to the bride why it is a bad idea. I don't take every job that comes in my door.

Thanks for all your "good" wishes...I think But, as I said it is a family cake he is my Godchild and this is part of my Wedding gift to them.

The reception is in Newport, RI, at a country club and I've had a few conversations with the banquet coordinator. They have been extremely accomadating, so I guess that's a small benefit of not living in a big city.

I'm also happy to say, that 4 yrs. ago when we built our home, we were fortunate enough to be able to put in a second "small" kitchen. Unfortunately that was the easy part the hard part was getting licenses and approvals, happy to report that was completed a year later. Not sure it was worth it, I only do 1 or 2 cakes a week, sometimes I don't do any in a week. My husband thinks it will be a good "resale" thing. Who knows, I'm not moving anytime soon. (It does come in handy when I host my family for the holidays though)

BTY, to Sarahssweettooths, I am very sorry for getting your thread off topic. I just questioned the use of SPS with 6" tiers, (never expected to get a lesson in so many other things, or to have to defend my cake designs or my licensing), whew I'm exhausted. Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to use for your supports. I've never used straws, but many, many good people on this site have and they seem to work for them

Bubble tea straw are very wide straws that allow people to suck up little balls of tapioca from a smoothie called bubble tea.... it's an asian thing.. well the only place I have seen it is in asian markets. Anyway they are much wider and more sturdy. I love em!

I dont know if i would use them for anything larger than a 6,8,10....... and I always use a wood dowel down the middle.

Now what is SPS???

I use bubble tea straws all the time and get mine from tentea.com. They're out of San Francisco and cost about $1.50 for a package of 50. They're just a really fat straw. I have no idea what bubble tea is. For larger tiered cakes, I use those and then put a small straw inside of them (like ones you get from McDonalds) and then snip them off. For smaller tiers, you can get away with using a smaller fat straw. They work very well and it sure beats having to saw off wooden dowells.