This is probably a dumb question but I wanted to know. Ok I see that alot of people decorate there cakes and then they put them on top of the other layers. How do you put the cake on the top of the other layer without messing up the icing and the decorations. I cant figure it out for the life of me.
I assume you're talking about fingers in the frosting of the layers as they are placed on top of each other. The only thing I can tell you is it takes practice. I also found that waiting till the frosting crusts helps. And have extra frosting for repairs.
If there is a border between the layers you don't add it until after it's stacked. It helps cover up some smushing from the stacking.
I hope I am answering the actual question you are asking....but you ice the cakes, stack them, and then decorate.
Okay, I'll be the one to ask. I just gotta know.....what's a pizza peel?
I asked the same question a few months ago...I couldn't figure out how you could get cakes stacked and have them look good without finger marks messing up the icing.
This was told to me and it works...
When you put the dowels in the cake for support, leave about 1 inch of the dowels sticking up out of the cake(so don't push them all the way in) so the next cake layer that you are putting down sits on top of the dowels (sort of like being on stilts) and the weight of the cake will just push the dowels down into the bottom cake and so the 2 cakes will end up, one of top of another..you will have time to get your fingers out and the top cakes sort of just "falls" onto the bottom cake.
Hope that makes sense...difficult to describe but it really, really works..
I was very nervous to try it but everything went well...both stacked cakes (green one and yellow one in my photos) were done in this way.
HTH
Jane
Yeah what is a pizza peel. That was my question because I see that alot of people say they take the cake to the place to set up but I was wondering how they spent all night on the cakes when they had to take it to a place to set up. I am new at cake decorating and dont know much about cakes like what icing you use to icing the cake what icing you use to decorate a cake and what do you use royal icing for? Its all questions I have no clue about. I wish I had more time to get good at decorating a cake. I have no problems making cakes been doing that for years but as for decorating it thats my problem. I dont have any family around me and my husband doesnt eat sweets and my daughter is still to young. So I just have to find reasons. But could yall help me by telling me about the icing as well as the pizza peel.
A pizza peel is the long handled paddle that they use to put pizzas in the oven and get them out. Like a giant ping pong paddle sort of.
I never transport my cakes already assembled, so the final touches of decorating are done on site ...... borders, silk/fresh florals, etc. Some icing flowers can be added before delivery, but any that need to cascade past the tiers (beyond the borders) can done at the site.
Anyway .... since I'm adding the borders at the site, I don't have to worry about smudging the borders. Any "uh-oh's" can be fixed with the extra icing I bring. I can usually get a cake set up and finish the decorating in under 20 minutes, give or take.
The dowel trick mentioned above is also how I do my doweling. Any space left between the cake tiers is filled in with border icing.
[quote]what icing you use to icing the cake what icing you use to decorate a cake and what do you use royal icing for?
There are lots of types of icings but many of the cakes on CC are iced with a type of buttercream which I will tell you about(so much to say that I will just skim over it so you get an idea)..you will see it written as BC..lots of recipes for that on the recipe link up top
Decorations like roses, leaves, vines, writing and borders can be done in BC
You can model figures and flowers in fondant and/or gumpaste or chocolate clay and they will harden and keep their shape
You can use Royal icing to make flowers which will keep for months after they dry...useful if you have to do many flowers for a project..you can do them early and keep them
In one of the forums there is "all you ever wanted to know about buttercream"...tons of info..have a look around and we are here to help and there are so many people who have lots of experiene to help out.
HTH
Jane
So i take it that when you take your cakes to the venue, you take them separately then stack them, then decorate them with borders etc?
So I guess you would have to have a couple of bags of icing and spare ones in case of bursting etc.
Has anyone stacked a cake and transported it straigtht to the venue and not have to decorate once there?
Good idea with the dowels in the cake and leaving a bit above the cake.
cheers
Jan
I always stack my cakes and decorate my cakes the night before and let sit in the fridge until ready to deliver/pick-up. I dowel each teir as usual then I run a dowel through the entire cake to make it sturdy. I will assemble anything with pillars on site, but I try to stay away from pillars...they are just not sturdy enough for my taste!
I've transported a whole cake and also transported sections to be put together on site. Both have advantages and disadvantages. However, I've been opting for the put together on site as I am less of a nervous wreck then and it really doesn't take that long on site with everything premade. Also, I'm not a big person, (puny muscles) and it is much easier for me to carry in separate tiers than a whole cake when the cake is big.
I would always transport in sections and finish on site...I was at a wedding were the cake came in pieces with a hysterical cake baker trying to salvage her masterpiece.
We do both. If the cake is small enough or a specialty cake we assemble at home and deliver. If the cake is extremely large we have to assemble on site. We gave our neighbor her wedding cake as our gift, it was over 200 pounds. Had to be assembled on site. Delivering assembled cakes is not as nerve wracking as long as it is supported well. We will never deliver a cake supported by dowels as they can shift in the cake. Even a dowel run all the way through a cake can shift if it starts to collapse. The best support out there is the stress free system that Earlene promotes, but it is expensive. You can stand on it and it will not move. It is adjustable to make it truly level. And you can use different size legs for small or large cakes. The next best would be the ones from Lauras-cakes.com. They are inexpensive and do a great job. Their drawback is that they are not adjustable. You have to have 4" tall cakes. Obviously both of these you want to get back as equipment. The ones from Lauras are cheap enough that you could add them into the cost of your cake. If you really need something sturdy, we have also screwed a dowel to the board that runs the height of the cake minus an inch, and place the cake over that. The cakes still have supports in them, not dowels. This prevents the cakes from moving in any direction. Typically for large cakes, sculpted cakes, or tall skinny cakes.
Back to the pizza peels. We have small ones without handles, and large ones with handles. We use them to assemble cakes (put 2 2" cakes on top of each other to make the 4" layer), and stack layers on top of each other. Cakes must be cool or they will stick.
Earlene's website is earlenescakes.com
I've transported a few already assembled that are 3 tiers high. So far so good. I like being able to set it on the table and be done. 
ok so where do you get the one that earlene promotes?
Earlene has the information on them, but she does not sell them. I have tried to talk her into it, but so far no good. The below is where you order them from. Here is also the link with all of the info.
http://earlenescakes.com/stressfreeordfrm.htm
Arlene's Info
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