I have a directors clapboard cake next week and i am trying to finalize my game plan. i am a bit nervous. It needs to be stand-up. It is for a double birthday so one side will be for each person.

What I was planning on doing is screwing two or three dowels to a cake board and sliding the cake onto them. I guess the cake would be 6 in wide. The clap part of the clapboard should be open, so i was going to take two rectangular pieces of foam (~1 in think) and securing them to a hinge with hot glue. Then hot glue the hinge so it no longer moves. cover the whole thing in plastic wrap and then fondant.

Chocolate cake covered in fondant as well.

Do you think this will work? Any thoughts on how to make the cake sturdier? All of the chocolate cakes i have done in the past have been very moist and i am afraid it won't stand up.

Any tips on how to do the dowels, put the cake onto them, do the fondant, etc would be much appreciated!

Kris

suggestions, anyone? ever done a tall skinny cake? please help!

kris

Your plan sounds great. Even tho it's only 6 inches wide, you'll still need to board and dowel every 2-3 layers of cake.

Personally, I don't think you need to bother covering your styro with plastic. Just slap the fondant right on. I made the mouth of my dragon (which I think is still my avatar) in exactly the same way. Two pieces of foamboard glued to a triangular wedge. Of course, it was on a much smaller scale than the clacker on a clapboard.

I would jam a couple of skewers into the bottom of the foam piece so it could be inserted into the cake.

As for chocolate cake, I prefer to use Cake Mix Doctor's chocolate pound cake for projects like this. It's sturdy, yet very moist and delicious. I agree that regular chocolate cake is a recipe for disaster.

If you're worried about lining up the cakes as you impale them onto your dowels, make a template from your dowels, stack up the cake layers, lay the template over the top and insert dowels. This will make holes in your cakes for you to follow when you actually place the layers over the dowels. It will also help you make the boards that will go between 'tiers'.

Hope that made sense!

Diane, Thank you so much for your advice! I am off to look up the recipe you suggested. And the foam wedge, wow, what a much better idea then a hinge! Lighter weight and less work

Your suggestion on a template is awesome, I will definitely have to do that.

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond. It has really helped!

Kris

I was able to find a chocolate cream cheese pound cake (http://www.cakemixdoctor.com/recipes/what_kind/cakes/chocolatecream_cheese_pound_ca.php). Is this the one you were thinking of? If not, do you have a link to the correct recipe?

Thanks, Kris