My lil girl is having her birthday party this weekend. She has her heart set on a Toy Story cake, wants one tier cowboy-themed w/Woody & Jesse and the other space-themed w/Buzz Lightyear.

She wants PILLARS inbetween them though, I did a wedding cake this summer with 2 sets of pillars and she fell in love because it makes "a really BIG cake Mommy!!".

I hate the look of pillars because you end up with the white plate under the top tier showing and it just looks icky unless your cake is white and neither tier of this cake will be white. I promised her any cake she wanted for her party because she was in the hospital with pneumonia on her actual birthday and I needed her to settle down to get shots and breathing treatments.

I usually trim my cardboard cake circles to the exact dimensions of my cake so I can wrap the fondant over them and have a borderless cake without the circles showing. Would it be possible to then set that on a plate that is *smaller* than my cake? IE a 6" cake on a 4" cake plate and pillars under it or am I asking for a disaster?

When I put an 8" cake on an 8" plastic plate, the plate doesn't show.

If you use the plates that have smooth edges (not scalloped edges) an 8" plate under an 8" cake wont' show.

And yes the smaller plate will work as well. Problem is I've only seen as small as 6". (if anyone has access to 4" let me know!) You can also try the crystal look plates, they show less than white or ivory.