Thanks Leah, that's what I was thinking. i always punch holes in the bottoms of the boards - i have only forgotten 1x! what a pain

As I say in the tutorial, "You'll only forget to punch the hole in the board once." It's a painful lesson.

Leah, I am so glad you keep up with this thread!! I am doing a 12-10-8-6 wedding cake that has to be transported 100 miles, plus 6 remote 12 cakes. Could you please "O.K." this order for me. I will need 10-8-6 plates and 12 GC-4 legs. Is this correct. Do these come in different colors besides white and what is the name of the plates that I order. Much thanks to you for all your help with this.

Plates come in white and ivory; and legs come in white, ivory and frosted. You've got the parts list correct. The plates don't have a name, other than "plates."

Just go to the Oasis Supply site and put SPS in the search box and all will pop up. Then before you place your order, put cake central in the search box for a coupon.

Thank you for your help, and the tip about the coupon...I love coupons!!

Hi! I've always used dowels, but I've been wanting to use the separator plates system ... however, I have a quick question.... this question may sound crazy so I'll try to explain it the best I can...
I've found that some plates stick out the sides of the cake, so ... do you use 13" separator plate for under a 13" cake or would you use a 12" separator plate under a 13" cake?? And what is the best place to buy the separator plates from? Because do the sizes vary by brand? I'm thinking either Bakery Crafts or Wholesale sugar flowers? Please help? It's for a 7", 10", 13", and 16" cake ... and when I deliver, do you think I should assemble it at the venue or before delivery? thank you!!!!!!

This thread is about the SPS system. There's a tutorial about it on page 15 of this Sticky.

You use the same size plate as cake.

Oasis Supply has very good pricing. Or you can order the system from BakeryCrafts if you have a wholesale account set up with them.

Ok, thank you so much!!!!

I have got to get a life!!!! My SPS just arrived and I feel like it's Christmas morning.....seriously!!

Congrats Maryj,
You'll never go back to the other way

So I don't have to read through 27 pages.....so cakes are baked and filled and they are 4" high...now I put frosting on, doesn't that make them more than 4" and what wil happen when I start stacking? How in the world am I gonna know how much frosting to put on the cakes? I am a bit nervous about assembling this cake, anybody....PLEASE HELP!!!

I don't know if it was hallucinating (or wishful thinking) but is there an option for a premade 5" SPS column? I swear I read that in another thread when the talk came around to trying to saw off the 9" legs to 5" high.

am i crazy? or where can I find a 5" column.

Actually you don't need an Agbay leveler to get your cakes the correct height. You just need a basic ruler and an idea of how much filling and icing you are going to add in. This is going to be long but I promise it's not that big of a deal. Just write it down the first time you do it and use that for future reference.

Let's say you bake cakes in 2 inch pans. For simplicity let's asssume you are not torting your cake. Just 2 layers of cake, icing in the middle and on top.

If you want to be consistent with your filling between the layers use either a tip or an open coupler to put the icing between the two layers. Your icer tip is fine if that's the amount you like to use. I use an open coupler if I'm not torting. That means my inside icing is just under 1/2 inch once it's all compressed. My top icing is going to be a little bit less than that generally so let's say 1/4 of inch. So on average I loose 3/4 of inch to icing and filling them my total cake height should be 3.25 inches, so I would need to level each of my cake layers to 1.625 inches (don't be that exact. I'd probably go for 1.5 inches each.

You don't have an Agbay, so the question is how do I get them to 1.5 inches every time. After your cakes are cool, take several cake circles (one size down from the cake size) and stack them up to 1/2 an inch. Tape them together and wrap them in something like Press and Seal. This will let you reuse them later.

Place the cake circles in the bottom of the pan and place your cooled cake on top. You cake is now sticking out 1/2 inch from the top of the pan. Using a long serrated knife, level your cake using the top of the pan as your guide. You now have 1.5 inch layer cake. Now repeat this with the other tier, fill and ice and you should be right at 4 inches.

One good tool to invest in, is a sewing ruler. These are the little rulers that have a slide on them. (You can get them at walmart). If you're afraid your tiers are to too tall or too short, once you have them frosted but not decorated or covered in fondant, check the height with a sewing rule. You can add frosting to adjust.

If you're doing fondant don't forget to allow for fondant height to be included in your calculation. Everyone stresses about this but if you can get it pretty close to 4 inches (a tiny bit over or under is fine) then it's not an issue. If there is a big gap between then it's a pain. But using the sewing ruler you should know before you put in the legs.

Miss silly, aren't you helpful!!!! what a great leveling idea. I went to the freezer and pulled out the cakes, stacked together they measure3 3/4 inches. all layers are the same height. I will level each layer to 1.5 inches and that will allow me 1 inch play room...can always add more frosting! thank you for being so kind as to type all that out.....short lived panic!!

Oasis Supply certainly DOES carry the 5" columns - in two colors.

http://www.oasisupply.com/Products/MoreInfo.asp?ProductID=1~BC+GC10S That's the frosted columns


Here are the white 5" columns. http://www.oasisupply.com/Products/MoreInfo.asp?ProductID=1~BC+GC9S

Yes.

The 4" columns are also Grecian Columns. (the product number is GC (Grecian Column) 4 (4") S)

You will have parts left over from the multi-piece leg set. I don't think that they are recyclable, so just throw them away.

Hello,
I have read the first 15 pages of this thread, and maybe I missed it somewhere, but I have a question about the general construction of a 3 tier cake.

I am making a 6, 8, 12 cake covered in fondant this weekend. I have downloaded the tutorial, purchased the SPS materials and am pretty much set to go.

My question is, on my 12 inch tier, I bought a cake drum to put it on. Do I merely attach the tier to the cake drum with buttercream? Then put on the 8 inch and 6 inch the SPS plates? Is a round 1/2inch cake drum enough to support a 3 tier cake or do I need to make an emergency trip to Michael's/Hobby Lobby to buy something else?

1/2" drum is fine - especially for a cake that small.

All the rest is correct.

WEll...I delivered my first wedding cake on the SPS system. 70 miles on extreme northern minnesota roads, through a road construction site...I can not explain the stress I had for the first 20 miles...it arrived in perfect form to the venue!!! I am a believer!!
On a side note....we hit a deer on the way home, glad that didn't happen on the way there!! Thank you Leah for such detailed instructions, even though I forgot to smear frosting on the seperator plates, that sucker didn't move a fraction of an inch!!

It is a great system. I can't believe anyone uses dowels any longer!

So happy to hear it worked for you. And sorry to hear about the deer and probably your car . . .

Does anyone know if we can get sps in the UK yet? (i may have missed something on a previous page but its a lot to read lol)

I would Love to try it!!

so after looking on both sites, sps only works for round tiers? how do you recommend stacking a square (base tier), round (middle tier), and hexagon (top tier) wedding cake?

SPS plates come on round, square and heart shaped. Just use a round under a hex cake. All available on the Oasis Supply site.

SPS plates come on round, square and heart shaped. Just use a round under a hex cake. All available on the Oasis Supply site.

I have a three tier cake to deliver this coming Sunday. I just found out that the driveway to the venue is up a long hill with the big chunks of gravel so it'll be very rough. Will the cake make it if I stack it ahead of time or should I stack onsite? This will be the first time using the SPS system. The cake is fondant if that makes a difference. TIA!

The cake should be fine, but I haven't seen the road, so don't sue me.
However, if you have doubts and only since it's your first time with SPS, you could stack the bottom couple of tiers and place the top ones onsite. Do what you're comfortable with. And remember, you do have to be able to lift whatever you prestack.