If you are securing turrets to the cake board with royal icing, how long does it take them to dry and become secure? I realize I can't put them on before the cake, so I'm trying to figure out how many days in advance I have to make the cake.

Do you just let the cake sit out uncovered while they dry? I'm not so sure it will fit in my refrigerator. Any tips?

Are you making your own turrets or using the Wilton castle set. I made mine from the Wilton set and I drilled a hole in the bottom, put a dowel in it, then punched hole in base with dowel and secured it all with royal. I cut the dowels longer for the turrets that stuck into the cake and used royal. I thought with all that it would travel well.....but it didn't! The ones in the cake traveled better than the others but they still wanted to spin around. The ones sitting beside the cake on the base were the worst...the royal came loose from the base. it was a mess. Once I got to the party site..I resecured everything with BC but the tall ones in the cake wanted to lean.

That is not very comforting!

I am using paper towel holders covered in fondant.

Hello there, I just made the Wilton Castle cake a few weeks ago and I used royal icing to form a "base" around the pillars that were not going into the cake. It did take a while to set so I'd at least make these bases the day before if you have to use royal icing. If I had it to do over again I'd make a square of fondant, "glue" a collar of Fondant to that around the bottom of the pillar and let it harden, then add grass to cover the fondant base after I decorate everything else. The royal icing cracked easily and I think fondant would hold up much better (I was figuring it out the day it was due or I'd have thought it out better..... Check out my castle and you can see that you can't even tell the bases are on there.

Good Luck,
Deb

WHat I did for my turrets, which were PVC covered in fondant, was to stick a skewer down the side closest to the cake at an angle so it held it close to the cake..

Here's a quick picture of what I am talking about since I read it and it's a little hard to visualize.. LOL

I made a castle cake two weeks ago. I used ice cream cones for the turrets and glued them down with royal. I did this the day before the party, I was scared to death that it would all come tumbling down during transport, luckily it worked great, nothing came loose, we cut the cake and the turrets were still standing. I think the most important thing is to have a strong board. I used ply wood for the cake board and then put that on another piece of ply wood. Good Luck!

When I make the castles I do something similar to jkalman. I make the turrets ahaead of time and remove the paper towel cardborad from the inside and then put royal icing on the botom of it and place it where I need it. Then I move it from there and put two dowels on the sides touching the royal icing circle impression I made. I do it on the sides that way if there are windows you can't see them. Then I just run a bead or royal icing on the outsides of the dowels and then again on the bottom of the turret and place back but should be really secure with the dowels and the royal icing. Then I just pipe some grass and flowers all around the turrets to hide the royal icing. Hope this helps.

Oh.. and for the top part I just used royal.. It dried enough to be secure enough to move in no time. Just don't GLOB it on..

That's a good idea about using dowels or skewers on the edge of the cake where the turrets go. I will definitely do that!

Thanks!