Hi there, I have a wedding cake I am making for a friend, she lives about 2.5 hours away. I am making a 3 tier cake, either 6,8,10 or 6, 9, 12. It will be all covered in fondant with some fondant cut out decorations added. Each cake will be 3 layers cake and 2 layers SMBC. I plan to use wilton plastic dowels in between each cake, and a foam core board under each cake.
My questions are,
should I travel with the cake all set up? Or is that a disaster waiting to happen?
Should I put it in a box, or just leave it out?
I will be transporting it in the back of my van.

I had been planning to take it with all 3 cakes separate and then put it together and finish it on sight. But a friend of mine said she did a wedding cake similar to this and traveled with it all done, and had no problems, and no center dowel.
Now I'm not too sure what to do.
Thanks for your advise!

If I have to travel more than 30 mins. with a multi-tiered cake that will be stacked, I take it in separate pieces and assemble on site.

I box each tier (with dowels already in place), bring along the necessary supplies, and put it together on the cake table.

I firmly believe that the vibration of a car is the most threatening thing to a stacked cake. Bad roads are usually momentary bumps, but the vibration of a car is a constant for the length of time the cake is in it--2.5hrs. is a long time...

JMHO
Rae

Yup, I agree...box each tier seperately and assemble on site. Make sure to put together a tool box with buttercream and powdered sugar, crisco, any tips/bags you may need to pipe the trim in between the tiers. I travel with cakes all the time that far and it's easiest when they are not assembled.

Cat

THanks! I think I will go with my first plan like you suggest. I will just have to make sure there is enough time to set it all up and finish it there.
Thanks again!

I just delivered a cake yesterday... it was only 30 minutes away but the last mile was down a gravel road to a country church! You just never know what road conditions will be.

I always assemble anything more than 2 layers on site.

Yesterday I took 2 sets of 2 layers and did everything else on site. pictures of what i took and how it ended up.

good luck to you!

hit submit instead of add attachment... duh