How Should I Make A Beer Barrel Cake?
Decorating By projectqueen Updated 6 Dec 2006 , 10:25pm by melysa
It doesn't need to be real big (8-10 servings), but I need to make a beer barrel cake and not sure the best way to go about it.
I can make it either laying on it's side or standing up, customer doesn't care which.
Also, how would I go about filling it? Cutting it?
If I make multiple cakes and stack them where would I put filling?
Thanks for any suggestions....
i'm not sure what a beer barrel looks like....like a wooden wine barrel? if so....you can use fondant to cover it. just cut strips out, use a knife or pizza cutter to add texture lines, paint with vanilla and brown color paste. you can use the small round icing tips to indent marks to look like nails (do they use nails????) and paint with silver luster dust and extract or vodka if you have them. for 10 servings, i'd bake a 4" round, 5" and another 4" and stack them, shave the edges so that it has a barrel look. ice and fill with buttercream (more stable for a 3-d cake) then top with the fondant wood strips, you could also wrap a few wood strips horizontal around the barrel.... and maybe use black gel paste on a small brush to paint the word BEER somewhere on it. on the top, it could also be covered with a circle of fondant to look like wood, maybe with a cork in an opening....if you stack more than 2 cakes, you definately should add a layer of cardboard and put a dowel all the way through from top to bottom (through the cardboard too) for stability
so, again, i dont know what a beer barrel looks like, but maybe thats an idea! have fun!
for about 20 svgs, you could do an 8", 9", 8" round
I just did a beer themed cake for a party - I went to "search" in the galleries and typed in - beer. I remember seeing a keg. I went back to see if a description was there to help you on this post and there is a little help. If you want to see it - it's on page 2 of the search results. It's a silver keg but I'm sure you could turn it into a wooden one. The creator used 4 layers to create the look - it says a 7", 8", 8", 7" and then he/she just carved it a little. Check it out. Maybe you could IM for directions. 
Yes, a beer barrel is a wood barrel like a wine barrel. I have the decorating part figured out pretty much, I was more trying to figure out how to fill it and stack it so it could be cut easily.
They requested cookies and cream filling.
Do you think a 4", 5" and 4" could each be filled between cakes with cookies and cream without any cake boards in between? I could dowel from top to bottom to keep it stable.
Hmmm, I just realized that height would not fit into a cake box and they need to bring it to a restaurant so it has to fit into a box with a lid.
Think I could make it laying down on it's side?
you could box it in a brown mailing box, or prop the top of the cake box open with a little tape.
i think that the 4-5-4 cakes should still be doweled and have carboard...because they are so narrow, they might lean or topple. now that i think about it, you should go with a 4-5-5-4, to give the middle of the barrel more of a gradual curve.
it definately would be easier lying down, but 3-d is always awesome. if you do it flat, you could bake one 4" and one 5", cut the circles in half, fill and ice them and place them side by side,carve to shape, then ice over, smooth your buttercream with a viva paper towel, and add wood grain, or do the fondant wood grain. that would only serve probably only 6, so you could do larger rounds like one 7" and one 8" and it should be about 10-12 servings. then it would be no more than 4" high and it would easily fit into a wilton 12x12x6 cake box with a window to stay closed and be admired.
Hello projectqueen,
As you know I made a wine barrel before and I would highly recommend that you make it 3D for the "wow" factor. Everyone thought it was really neat. I used all 6" circles for mine and I put filling in between each round instead of torting each one. I did not put carboard between each layer, I just dowelled the whole thing once from top to bottom. To make the wood look, I just added brown to my fondant and did not mix it in all the way, this resulted in the textured look.
HTH! Good luck.
You could try using the wonder mold pan, baking 2 cakes and slicing off a couple of inches of the small sides so it has a wider bottom to stand on. Once you fill the wide ends and place the cakes together, it'll have a real barrel shape. Although, it would definately make more than 10 servings. Also, you will have a ready made hole all the way through that would be easy to dowel.
When I said sideways I was thinking laying on it's side. Wouldn't it still be 3D?
Although, I can't figure out how I would fill/cut it this way either, LOL 
Something like this?..... would that work?
sure you could, just level out the bottom enough to stay on the board. cutting a 3d cake is never easy, but who cares? its the wow people want- just allow them to chop into it and get seconds if the piece was too small!
regarding the shape and how to ice round cakes together sideways, as long as it is level at the bottom, it should hold up especially if you use fondant to wrap it (full piece not strips) , but for good measure, i'd put dowels in sideways and use a good sticky buttercream filling (cookies and cream- is that a buttercream version?)
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