Hi, I'd really like to practice more of my cake decorating without baking tons of cakes. No one at our house really eats cake and there is only so many "disaster cakes" that i can bring to work. I can't seem to find where we sell dummy cakes in my area. I was wondering if anyone out there who was just starting or was once in the same boat had any tips on how to practice more without baking a million cakes? I'd like to practice covering with fondant, smoothing buttercream, stacking cakes and putting everything together to maybe show a finished product~!

Any information would be helpful! Thanks.

Your best would be to try online for dummy cakes, Ebay sells them i know that much, and pretty much all sugarcraft stores should sell them.

Yes, dummy cakes. Also if you ever come across a chance to make something for work or church or school or whatever else, family function, whatever, just do it.

I would try looking to order dummy cakes online if they are not available in your area. its the best way to practice without baking and wasting lots of cakes. they are not expensive.

HTH

try a furniture shop/ home retailer, they may carry foam to make cushions/ cake dummies. yiou may need to cut it your self, but probably they can give you the shape you need.
do a search on google too, theres lots of places (foam specialist or cake suppliers) that ship foam - although shipping can be pricey.

although dummies are good practice for the decorating bits, they are not, in my opinion, good for the stacking bit - they weigh as much as a feather, and can be fairly well manhandled. so for that area, id stick to real cake.
xx

Hi! You can order cake dummies on line. In the Northeast US, www.candylandcrafts.com sells them; but I am sure that there are many, many other places as well. I remember when I started out (I'm still a hobby baker after 10+ years), I would bring cakes to work, like you. I liked to practice both baking and decorating, though, since I'm mostly a scratch baker. If you do find you want to practice baking, you can always donate your baked goods by giving slices away to your postal carrier, gas station attendant, almost anyone you can think of would love to have some!

However, in your interest of practicing fondant and stacking, I would sugest finding an on-line source for cake dummies and ordering some.

Best of luck to you! Have fun!

For my practice "dummies" I just use styro circles and squares purchased from the art supply or craft store or WalMart - have not gotten around to buy proper "dummy" pieces online, but these are a perfect and inexpensive option for me.

I get all of my dummies from a place called www.**********.com They have fantastic prices and even with shipping (since they are considered oversized boxes) they are so much cheaper than at the local cake supply store. I bought a set of round 4-6-8-10-12-14 for around $28 with shipping. At the supply store the same set would have been more than $40. They have all kinds of sizes and shapes and can even custom make pieces for you too. Search for them online. They had the lowest prices I could find. HTH

Why not use an inverted cake pan? The 3" deep pans would work as well as a dummy cake. I would think the dummies would get all gunky pretty quickly. Just put the pan on top of your turntable with some of that no-slip shelf liner stuff under it. I would also put a counterweight on the top of the pan to also hold it in place. When you're done, scrape everything off and wash. Once you feel like you've perfected a skill, then you can get a dummy and apply the technique so that you can show it to whomever you need to.

You can purchase dummies online at:

www.**********.com

(Don't click on the link, copy & paste and remove the astricks)

&

http://www.countrykitchensa.com
(This link is clickable)

Thank you.

I have always got my dummies from www.**********.com . Never had a problem with it.

I made a facebook group where I advertised that I would make cakes for cost. This allows me to get more practice in without spending too much money and eating too much cake.