I saw a picture of a wedding cake. It is 3 tiers with a single row of sugar roses between each tier. I presume that the styrafoam seperator underneath is about 2" smaller. Would you wire these roses and stick into the foam OR just place the roses around the gap? How do you deal with the empty gaps where the styrafoam might show? If it was fresh flowers it would be easy as you can squash the roses together but not sugar roses. Also, when you place the tier on top, there is the scare of breaking off the petals which stick up.

Also, when you dowel the cake underneath, do you extend the dowel so it stops at the same level as the seperator or is it just in the cake? If the dowels are sticking out, is there a chance that it may show through the roses?

If it were me, I'd cover that little piece of styrofoam in fondant to match the cake, so that if it does show, it blends in nicely.

Are you going to be using SPS? A pillar system? Or just the dowel?

I would make little gum paste flowers as fillers and then the second row would be the roses. But that is if you have time to make those fillers, otherwise, cover the separator with fondant, before you place the roses.

When I did a cake like this, I put the roses on wires and stuck the wire right into the styrofoam (after using a skewer to make a hole). I used leaves and little filler flowers to fill the gaps between the roses (the roses, leaves and fillers were all ivory to match the ivory of the cake). I also set up the tiers first, with the separators, before putting the roses in, so that I would avoid breaking any roses when rebuilding. It travelled in 2 parts (It was a 4-tiered cake).

Hope this helps a little bit!

Thanks for your tips. I think covering in fondant is the best idea as putting in filler flowers will change the style of the cake as the main attraction will be single row of roses. The cake design comes from http://www.couturecakes.co.uk/contemporary2.html#nogo (its the 2nd picture). From this picture, can anyone tell if the roses were actually wired and stuck in styrafoam or just placed underneath around the block? My plan is to use the dowel system, going though the cake and levelling with the block. Does the dowel have to be stuck through the block or can I place one on each corner?

Katev17, how did you travel with 2 parts if you put the roses in afterwards? Did you mean you stuck the seperator on each tier (without the roses). Also on 2nd thoughts, isn't it better to cover the seperator in the same colour as the roses NOT the cake. If the cake is white, the gaps will still be obvious.

You also could use little tufts of tulle or ribbon as a filler. This will give you a whole different look.

Just trying to throw different suggestions out there....

Jen

Thanks but the pictures that you see with rows of roses are done so perfectly that it looks as if they have used nothing else, there are n gaps.

To get no gaps with sugar flowers would be really difficult. But fresh... you could kind of snuggle them together tightly to get no gaps.

Jen

jennifer, have you ever done a cake like this? Does anyone have any picture of cakes with sugar roses in between so I can see that it is unrealistic to do a gapless display?

Now that I look back at the cake on the website, that display has gaps!

Not really.... I've done sugar flowers but with lots of filler flowers as well.

Jen

Hi! For the gaps, you're right.. I couldn't have put the roses in there with no gaps unless I had the little filler flowers and leaves to put in the gaps. (I'll try and remember to post a picture when I get home) ... The fillers were really not that noticeable, as they were the same colour as the roses themselves. The only other thing I could think you could do would be to make your roses using wired petals for the outside layer of petals, which would give you a little bit of wiggle-room to move them around and try to fill the most obvious gaps?

I think if you covered the separator with the same colour as the roses it might not be that much better than covering using the same colour as the cake. I have only done one cake in this style, and the whole thing was the same colour from top to bottom - roses, fillers, and all! (light ivory). But it seems to me like it may actually stand out a bit more if you were to cover using the same colour as your roses? Really don't know, sorry!

For the travelling question, I built the cake without actually adhering the two top tiers to the bottom. So I built the whole thing, put in the roses, then was able to take the two top tiers off for travel. Does this make sense? Tier 1 and 2 were stuck together, as were 3 and 4. Tiers 2 and 3 were stuck together at the venue.

Whew - I hope that made sense...

Kate!