I have a cake coming up that is styrofoam on the bottom two tiers and a real top tier. These will be covered in fondant. Anyone have any experience with this that could fore warn me about what not to do? Do I use a cake board under the middle styrofoam layer? Will the styrofoam offer the same soft curve on the top rim that real cake does. (I wouldn't want to have two tiers with a sharp edge and the top with a soft curved edge. )

You don't have to have a board between the 2 styrofoam layers. You can buy styrofoam dummies that have the "fondant curve" or you can roll the styro's on the counter to smash the sharp edges into a softer edge. Also don't need to dowel under the top tier. The styro will support the cake w/o dowels.

I just did a fake cake for a show and I did not use any boards between my styrofoam dummies. Just put some icing between them so they stick together. Put a cardboard under your top (real cake) tier with icing on the bottom of the board to help it stick to the dummy cake underneath.

I had a really hard time getting my fondant to stick to the styrofoam just using water (what my friend uses) so I put a thin layer of piping gel over the styrofoam and it held the fondant beautifully.

Good luck!

PS - you can take a rolling pin and roll it along the sharp edges of your styrofoam cakes to soften the edges to match your real cake.

These are great ideas! Thank you

If I'm not mistaken the new cc magazine states u can buy some sandpaper and use it around the edges of the dummy to create more of a rounded shape. U don't need any cardboard under the dummies and u can apply a thin layer of shortening or piping gel to make the fondant stick. U can use some royal icing or piping gel to make the dummies stick together once stacked

No supports needed at all. You also can take a scrap pc. of styrofoam and sand the edges down. It will work just like sand paper would.

Jen