Hello!

I'm a culinary student new to the cake decorating world...there's a cake decorating contest at my school that I'm considering entering and I was wondering if anyone could help me...
I would like to do a large castle, but the whole thing has to be cake - are the use of dowels and plastic stands generally permitted? If not, does anyone have any tips on building large castle structures without the help of dowels? What about things like chocolate castings and pastillage, I don't see them much in competition pictures, are they discouraged in competitions?

Any answers, tips, advice, or replies in general are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

you'd have to check the specific rules but most cake decorating contests like that including ones on the food network will allow dowels and boards that are non edible because they're necessary for the structure when stacking cakes!

Hi and Welcome to CC, OtterPop.

Decoding CC acronyms:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-2926-.html

Here's a great large fairytale castle by Kathy Moore:
(With complete instructions.)

http://tinyurl.com/2putpt

Good luck!!!!

wow great tutorial!!!!! thanks for sharing!!!!!!