I've never had to use a dummy, but I have a wedding cake coming up where I'll have a 18" dummy as the bottom tier. The whole cake is going to be covered in buttercream. How do I need to do the styrofoam? I've heard just cover it in saran wrap then ice as normal. Is that right?

Also, will I need to put any supports in the styrofoam? I use dowels as my support in my cakes and I was thinking the dummy would be fine without, but there will be 5 tiers on top of it.

How do y'all recommend doing this one? Thank you for all the help!!!

No need to put any plastic on the dummy. Just ice it like the rst of the cake. You sold it with the cake, right? It's not like you're gong to get it back.

And no, the styro doesn't need any support for the upper tiers. It IS the support. You and a friend could stand on that 18" dummy easily.

Hi There ----

I've been doing a lot of practicing on dummy cakes. I got mine from Taylor Foam. If you google it, you'll find their site, and on the left tool bar, they have dummy cakes - all makes and sizes. Will even custom cut one for you.

I don't wrap mine - just frost over it. The only problem I've had is that the foam of course is lighter than a cake, so it tends to move on me while I'm frosting it. My husband came up with the idea to stick a piece of double stick take - or duct tape rolled up - onto the cake board, then put the foam on it. Works pretty good, but remember it's still lighter, so it will still move, and sometime I have to put my finger on the top while I frost the sides. Once the sides are frosted, the frosting acts like a glue and it doesn't move as much when your doing the top.

I wash mine when I'm done with some Dawn and hot water - Dawn takes away the grease from the frosting. I use a little SOFT scrubber, so I don't damage the foam. Rinse and let air dry.

I have found tho that if I leave the 'cake' decorated for more than a day or two, it tends to stain the foam - esp. reds/pinks/blues... so if you going to have it on display for a while and want to reuse, maybe you should wrap it...

No support needed for my tiers. And to support some of the Gum paste items, I made them with toothpicks inserted - those were narrow enough that they didn't damage my foam when I put them into the 'cake'...

Whew! A Lot!! LOL.... good luck and have fun!! If you have more questions, I'll be happy to try and help ...

I have a cake drum that I pounded nails up through the bottom of it, just stick the dummy on it and the nails go right up into the dummy......holds it in place perfectly for icing it, no moving whatsoever!

When it's time to take it off, just stick your offset spatula underneath and lift a little at a time all the way around the cake dummy until it's off!

Also http://www.dallas-foam.com/store/cakedummies.html has super cheap dummies

The b&w cake in my photos is all dummy.
My very first wedding cake too.

And like Leahs said, you could stand on that thing
I used wooden skewers and piping gel to stick it all together.

And nails through the cake board, too!!

It got transported over bumpy roads, in the back seat of a car, trooped out to a golf course for pictures, into the venue, and back to our local florists for display.

Love cake dummies, love 'em!!
I'd do those all the time, if I could - free up my weekends!! LOL!!

YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank y'all sooooo much!!! I was starting to get worried about using the dummy, but now I can't wait to see how it goes!!

Y'all are great! Thanks again!!

When I was buying my dummy online at country kitchen, they had dummies for fondant. They had more of a rounded edge. I can't remember what shapes they had though.

I hope you can get an answer to your question!