You guys are gonna boot me out of here for asking too many questions!!
I am making a treehouse cake for this weekend. The treehouse itself is going to be a 6 inch square. I would like to cover it with fondant "wood" panels so I can get nice clean edges on the corners. I want the panels to be dry and I don't plan on icing the cake until Friday and its due for Saturday. Is there anyway to make the panels before I have iced the cake? I can't figure out how since I feel like I would have to measure the length and height of each side in order to cut the panels to the right size. This is such a complex cake (for me) that I want to do as much ahead of time as possible. Thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks.

You could estimate the size and then cut them out and then freeze the panels. That way once you place them on the cake, you can trim them as needed, but they are easy to handle frozen.

Yes you can. I made my toybox cake using panels that I made and left to dry before placing on the cake.

I made my Tardis cake with panels too, I used 50/50 gumpaste and fondant so they would dry hard. I made them the day before assembly, but I only did it that late because I was waiting for my fondant and gumpaste to come in the mail. I'd have done them earlier and allowed more time for them to dry if I had the option.

So how did you guys know what size to make them without exact measurements from the cake? And what do you do if they don't fit exactly?

I stacked my cakes and the panels were about an inch too short, so I put a few peices of foamcore under the cake to boost it up to the right size, as for the sides, it wasn't a big deal if they overlapped or didn't match perfectly because I covered the edges with a strip of fondant. take a look at the blue phone booth looking thing in my pics, hopefully that'll help you understand what I'm saying.

Yeah that's what I am thinking about doing! I'll just estimate the size and then put fondant strips on the corners. I can never get the edges to meet even if I measure the cake after its already iced! Thanks for all your suggestions and help!

Depending on the thickness, you can leave fondant panels to dry for a couple of days and still cut them with a new exacto knife. I did this for my wine bottle crate cake. So I estimated the size a bit over and then trimmed the day of.

Sillywabbitz,
sorry I was so unclear with that question. Let me clarify. I want to do a Tiffany Box cake and I want to use panels but I'm afraid that my client will have a hard time cutting the cake later when it's ready to be served.

...when using panels do they remain dry after puting them on the cake. Do tghe panels need to be removed before cutting the cake?

thanks cookiedoescakes, that's what I meant.

I think if you're using panels for boxes, it's best to remove one panel and then cut the cake.

Regarding if the panels stay dry, the answer for my cake was yes. They stayed stiff after attached to the cake. Hope that helps.