Hello, I am really new to cake decorating, and I have a question about stacking cakes. I have a lady who wants me to make a 3D tiger cake that will sit atop a 12-inch double layered round cake. The tiger will be about 7 inches tall. My question is do I put the tiger on it's own cake board and then just have dowel supports under it? Also would it be better to travel with them as two separate pieces and put the tiger on there? I have to drive it about an hour away. I will have a dowel through the middle of the tiger so that the head will stay attached better. Also, do I make the cake board that the tiger sits on the same shape as the tiger or just keep it round and frost over it? Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I have never done a stacked cake, ever, and I've also never done a cake for someone other than myself and family members. The same lady also wants 200 cupcakes with a tiger face on every single one of them. So any advice on those too, I will take. Thank you.

I'm not a "trained professional." Completely self-taught, so I'll let you know how I would do it b/c of my own trial and error. Definitely have the tiger on cardboard and cut the board the same shape as the tiger. I personally would wait to stack until arriving at the venue. I absolutely hate transporting stacked cakes and avoid it as much as possible. But, remember, that will mean you have to do all the final touchups and decorating on site as well. So, you'll need to arrive a little earlier with all your tools to ensure you have the time to set it all up properly. Have fun and good luck.

Hi! To answer your questions here's what I would do:

I would treat the bottom tier and the tiger tier as separate cakes, each on their own board and dowelled. (Do not over-dowel or the cake will fall apart)

I would cut the shape of the tiger for the cardboard base.

I would make the tiger head out of something lightweight - not cake since it won't be supported well - perhaps rice krispee treats.

I would carry them separately to the venue and assemble on site.

For cupcake tiger faces, I would use colored chocolate melts to make the faces. Just use a computer to find the image, copy it several times on a piece of paper. Place that paper under a piece of parchment and make your chocolate transfers. This can be done ahead of time.

Hope this helps!

hhmm...here's some advice...I personally would assemble the cakes when I arrived at the event since it's your first time stacking..nothing worse than a fallen cake or collapse incident...as for the board that Tigger is sitting on..use your judgement...shape it or leave it round but as close as the same size as the bottom of Tigger...for the cupcakes...fondant Tigger faces I've seen done quite often on here...you could also do transfers with buttercream or piping gel...even using fondant and edible markers for drawing the faces on...unless you have edible paper to print images on then I would go with that...this is just MY advice..I'm sure you will get more..GOOD LUCK!!!

Thank you all for your input. I never thought about trying to make the tiger faces separately and then putting them on the cupcakes. That would be a time saver in the long run to do it that way. My plan with the cupcakes were to just ice them with buttercream, and then pipe faces and stripes onto them.

I also never thought about doing the tiger head in anything other than cake. I'll have to think about doing it in RKT. I had planned on making it basically the same way I did my daughter's giraffe, just a little bit different shaping.

Thank you all for all of the great input and help! I really appreciate it. I am having a lot of fun with my cakes. I have gotten tons of ideas and inspiration from CC!