Hi everyone i am wanting to doa version of these vase cakes below (i would credit the cake artist for the purple one as it is from cakecentral's gallery but i stupid;y lost the name and can't manage to find it again to correct that so if anyone knows the artist i will pop their name here for them to get the rightfull credit ) now my question is do i need to board and dowel or can i get away with stacking and a central dowel? I have made several large 3D characters by stacking and i think this should be fine i just wanted to see what others have done? also if you should board and dowel how go you carve it to get the perfect vase shape with the boards in the way? also if anyone knows of mre pics i would love to see them as i just love the style, so elegant! (I am referring to the cylindrical or square vase types not the cakes litterally carved to look like ornate vases) I have found myself on a few ocasions trying to talk brides into choosing this style so i have a reason to make it! (naughty I know bu they are so pretty!!!) I would love to ask the creator of the purple one (from looking at the two my guess is thepeurple is the original and the pink is the copy??) how the decorator did it i just love it!!

an ideas at all????

Sorry, I've never made one, nor have I seen one like that made.

Theresa

hmmm... how tall are they I wonder? One idea I have is with no boards: tort, stack and use dowels, but in a TEEPEE fashion, not just straight up and down. I'm thinking that might provide additional support, but not sure. Then carve away, keeping in mind where the dowels are.

Good luck - post a pic when you're done!

I have never done a cake like this, so I don't really know. I have always read on here that you are supposed to dowel and board every 2 layers (or 4") of cake. I am not sure how you would carve with boards in there unless you just have a really sharp knife or maybe an electric knife??

I made a tall oil rig cake (2ft).
I stacked the cakes before I filled them, carved and then dissassembled them.
I then put a board under every third cake, filled and cut the board to the size of the cake, then stacked with straws under each boarded cake. In the order they needed to go to get the tapered shaped I had carved. Finally a center dowel.
So it was a stacked, carved and boarded , it traveled over an hour and was fine, I had no problems.

I might have gone about it the hard way but I could'nt think of any other way to carve and put boards in it.

Oh if you do carve before you fill make sure you cut a little marker in the cake so you know how the layers go back together.

Good luck, hope I did'nt confuse you too much.
And those are beautiful cakes, I can see why you would want to make them!

Oh and I ended up stacking 4 -6" tall cakes, and I would'nt suggest carving the boards with the cake, the cardboard would leave little peices and chunks in the cake, or I would assume it would?

I have never made such a cake, so you may not want to listen to me. But just looking at this, I think you might need to board and dowel since it's pretty tall. When I carve cakes with boards in them, I cut the boards so that they are about the size the finished cake will be, place them in the middle of the cake layer (there will be extra cake that is not covered by the board) dowel and stack and usual, and then carve the cake. Since the boards are smaller than the original cake layers, they don't get in the way during carving, yet they still support the dowels and lend stability to the cake. Your finished boards may not be the exact size of the finished carved cake, but if it's pretty close, it may be fine. Also, for that shape, if you look under the articles on Cake Central, there is an article (under projects) for making a 3-D baby in a flower pot cake. The woman in the article carved the cake upside down into the shape and then turned it right side up. Perhaps that would be easier than carving a tapered shape right side up?

The purple cake is by helipops. Maybe you can pm her?
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=870433
Karen

oh thankyou Karrenayak!! I have just Pm'd Helipops and asked her -I hope she doesn't mind and will share the 'secrets of the vase' cake design LOL!! no seriously do you think people would get offended asking how to make there cakes? I always love helping but that may just be me!!