I need help. I offered to make this cake for April 20th, and I've never done one like it before.
First I should say this is a free cake for my sister, well for my nephew's 4th birthday. Anyway, I wanted to make it my 1st tiered cake. I have read and studied all I can, but I've never made a tiered cake before.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. The cake will be all BC with some MMF decorations on it. Please, what do I need to know?

what size of pan you are going use?

Do you have a picture of the cake??

make sure and dowel it I always put cake board rounds between each tier
Good Luck it'll be fun once you complete it don't stress

Molly2

I just made my first tiered cake and it isn't that hard. You just need to be organized and don't rush yourself. I made a 10 and 6 inch round. I trimmed the cardboards under the tiers so they were invisible. Make sure your cut your dowels so they are a speck shorter than the tier or it will raise the tier up on that side. Also make sure you have a sturdy base - they get heavy. When I transferred the 6 inch, it was tricky and I did nick icing, but after piping borders, it wasn't real noticable. Sugarshack is coming out with a dvd on successful stacking in late April. That promises to be great info - all of her other dvds are invaluable. Good luck!

My best advice is to use dowels, even if you have read that you don't need to. I have always found that they are crucial, and if you aren't sure about using them, they can't hurt anything!
Also, make sure each cake is on its seperate board, so that it will stack evenly.
Good luck!

Never mind the fact that if you are driving a single dowel through both tiers to help secure the tiers you have to make sure that sucker is SHARP SHARP SHARP to go through the soggy cardboard. Just make sure you poke holes in your cardboard before you place your cakes on them. This helps that final dowel go through much easier. If you are just doing a two tier cake you probably don't need to dowel it through the center of both tiers. The support the dowels give from the bottom tier should be enough.


Amy

So I use sucker sticks for cakes of 3 tiers or less. Never had an issue. However, I also don't drive long distances with it put together. I finish at the scene. If you're traveling stacked, you must use a center dowel and I woudl recommend using dowels. An even better system than dowels is the SPS system. Leahs uses it. PM her if you have any questions. No center dowel and the cake can take whatever you throw at it. You must buy the boards and pillars specifically designed with SPS though.

Also my best advice is it must be level and at no time should the tier above rest on the bottom cake.

To achieve this, I cut my dowels 1/8" taller than the bottom tier. Some people use levels to make sure their cakes are level. I haven't done this but I do cut all my dowels equal to each other to account for an uneven cake. The gap is covered up with the border.

It's really not hard! Good luck!

I agree with aswartzw about the dowels slightly above cake level so tiers do not touch. The method I use is similar to the SPS system. The bottom border covers the barely noticeable gap. I also agree to cut your cardboards slightly smaller than the cake tier. I put my cakes on the card board as soon as I flip it out of the pan so it will stick. Once completely cool I wrap cake and then place in fridge for an hour or so so I can handle the cake to cut the cardboard. I do it that way so I don't accidentally cut the cardboard too small.


Amy

Thanks so much for the information. The cake I will attempt to make is from buckygirl "Spiderman Cake". I don't think my cake will come out nearly close to hers but I will try anyway. I will be making some changes since he's allergic to eggs so the royal icing webs are out. I will attempt to make them from white chocolate. lso I'm only making it 2 tiers instead of 3. Although I'm tempted to try a rice crispy treat covered in BC for the 3rd tier.
Anyway, I really don't have many pans. Will a 10" with an 8" on top be okay? Or should I buy a 6"
PS: I really like the idea about cutting the dowels 1/8" higher.

Similar post, please also see:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-583229-.html

HTH