I'm trying to do a Disney's Tangled cake in a couple of weeks and I'm hitting a road block as far as the structural support. I've tried contacting a few people after seeing their design being similar to what I wish to do (not just CC people but from other sites), and I've had no luck with anyone replying - which is cool, they don't have to. But...now that leads me to post this question in the hope that someone can offer some insight, please. Below is a picture to reference a tower that is on top of a tiered cake AND it's offset from the center which is what I wish to do (at least it appears to be slightly off center). My bottom tier will be a 10" cake, then an 8" cake and then about a 6 - 7 inch tall tower made from RKT, then a house made from RKT as well as a roof of RKT - these 3 to be kept as separate components as I intend to assemble on sight traveling only with the 2 tiers of cake and the tower attached. I hope that makes sense. Here's the pic:



I had planned to not only put my usual center dowel into the tiers of cake, but I was thinking of dowelling the offset tower, house, and roof down into the cake board as well as in one long thinker wooden dowel from the top of the roof down into the cake board. I'm wondering how this will offset the balance of the cakes if at all AND I'm mostly wondering how to support the tower from underneath. Do I treat all that extra weight as if it were another layer of cake (though off center) as in placing my bubble tea straws under the diameter of the cake board that the RKT tower will be on? Im hoping that would be enough. Because of my design idea, I do NOT want to place the tower and house dead center so I need to make sure I can pull this off with it being off to the side or to the back a little.

Man I hope that makes sense and you guys can picture what Im talking about. Any structural insight would be GREATLY appreciated PLEASE and thank you so much!!!

Oh, alsoon a side note Ive tried googling for this answer but came up with nothing other than a wedding serving and I e-mailed Wilton but they havent replied. How many PARTY servings will an 11 x 2 round cake pan yield?

Thank you all so much!!!

Shay

Hi Shay,

Sorry, I can't help with your questions concerning this cake, but I did see this one made with ice cream cones, which I thought was clever. Maybe you can try something similar to this one for the tower.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1910871

Good luck!

Karen

Hi Karen, thanks for your reply!
I've already made started making the RKT components. I just want to make sure I add them to my cake without causing any damage and such.

Self-bump...

this is how I would do it www.cakestackers.com
you can do lots of crazy stuff with way less stress and worry. It's what I use for all my tiered cakes.

this is how I would do it www.cakestackers.com
you can do lots of crazy stuff with way less stress and worry. It's what I use for all my tiered cakes.

How would that work with the cake I described and pictured above being that it will be offset/off center?

Okay, I might be over thinking this, but I probably would have gone the route of pvc pipe. But considering that you already have the pieces built, I would continue the way you are going. You'll definitely want to support the tower like its a separate tier of cake, otherwise it will just sink into the cake. I would probably skip a separate center dowel, and just dowel it off center to match where you want the tower to go. How sturdy is the tower? If it stands up pretty good on its own, you might be able to just set it on top when you arrive. Although you'd risk it tipping over if its not super sturdy.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck!

Hi Cindy! The tower is RKT - pretty sturdy, right? And if I treat it like another tier, I would put a center dowel - but you are saying if I do THAT dowel through the tower, that I won't need a center dowel just for the cakes?

Thank you for your time.

I would think one off center dowel would be enough - my only concern is whether or not you'd actually be able to drive a dowel through the RKT tower without altering its shape. You'll have to test it and see.

Whatever you decide to do just be sure to support each layer of cake and the tower with small dowels or bubble straws to keep them from collapsing from the weight.

Hopefully you'll hear back from someone who has actually made the cake and see what they did. One in doubt, go with your gut

What I did right after I shaped the RKTs was run the dowel through them so that the hole is already there - I was trying to think ahead to make assembly easier. OK...I see - ONE dowel all the way through should still serve the purpose. I'm curious to see if anyone has done something similar and can speak from experience - the more info the better of course. Thank you Cindy.

Oh...also, anyone know about the 11 x 2 round pan party servings? Wilton replied basically saying that since THEY don't make an 11 x 2 pan so they cannot help me.

Thank you.

I just made a Rapunzel cake and used 4 dowels inside the bottom portion of my tower. I used melted sugar to glue them onto the inside of an upside-down ice cream cone...and left them sticking out the thickness of my cake and it worked very well...tower stood on the cake board stabilized by the lower cake tier. I used toothpicks to attach my RKT tower sections together. RKT stays soft enough to be able to insert many toothpicks and make it very sturdy. I'm super new to everything...my 1st cake with fondant and buttercream. It lasted well among a bunch of 5-year-olds. Good luck

Your cake came out so cute! My concern is attaching an RKT tower to the top tier of a 2 tier cake. But oh well - thanks to those that took the time to try to help. I appreciate your input.