I'm making a cake for my brother in law next week. He plays steel drums professionally, so I'd like to make a steel drum cake. I think it should be simple enough -- just a think 8 or 9 inch round cake. But a steel drum is concave, like an inverted turtle shell. How can I make the cake concave without ruining the integrity of the cake? And can I still use a filling?

Any suggestions for me?

stack at least three layers ....that way have two full layers to serve

cut top most tier at a slat (see sketch) so that you remove most of the middle and leave slanted sides.

use some BBQ skewers pushed into top most layer to tack it to other layers.

yes could use filling easily between bottom two layers.

i'd cover whole thing in fondant for ease in getting smooth drum look and being able to make the flattened sections in the drum head.

something I'd try>> instead of an icing dam to hold in the filling...a large roll of fondant that stuck out from side at least of 1/3 of diameter....this would help create the familiar ridges found on steel drums (2 per full size drum).

HTH