My daughter REALLY wants this cake, so I'm gonna take a stab at it. 2-tier with rapunzel's tower on top. Of course the tower is probably going to be heavier (rice-crispie form with fondant covering it). How do I support that? I thought maybe a small cake-circle with 3-4 dowels or straws undergoing through both tiers. Any and all suggestions are welcome! thanks! http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1949965[url][/url]

I would make the base out of plywood and make the tower portion be PVC. Screw it onto the plywood with a connector piece (sorry Im not sure excactly what they're called. Then do the same for a smaller piece of plywood screwed to the top, again you'll have to get the same kind of connector - made from PVC material, and set the little house on top.

So when you are stacking your cakes, you make a hole thru the middle, then slide them over the PVC, stack, crumb coat, cover, etc. Between the top and bottom tiers, I'd just use bubble straws.

Am I making any sense?

Yea, sorta. I've never made a tiered cake that needed this much support. Not sure where to find a round plywood cake board...no tools to do it myself. PVC should be a small size, right? Just the stuff you find at the hardware store? Sorry, new to this part of caking.

Why don't you ask the person that made? Just send them a PM and ask about the structure.

I think they might cut the PVC for you at the hardware store. And I would imagine that you could find some sort of wooden circle (already cut) to screw it to. I'd just take a field trip to the hardware store and see what kind of fun stuff you could find

I did PM her, just waiting for a reply. Thought someone might have an idea as to how to make a mdf/pvc stand.

the last cake and the cake i am currently doing have a pvc support. it is amazing what you can do with them (and so easy)
you can use a regular cake drum for the base and screw a 1/2" flange to it. not all hardware stores carry threaded pvc, but those are the best way to go.
here is a pick of what i did yesterday with a 1/2" flange

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59151180@N05/5698012151/


and a cake similar to the one you are thinking of.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2023826

the possiblites are endless

For those of us that are not handy at all (and do not have access to a handy person), is there a book or tutorial that you can recommend in building PVC supports like this? It seems like once you get the hang of doing it, that it would become easier to do.

Thanks for the tips! Hubby and I went to Home Depot today. Got a piece of MDF that he can cut into a circle. A couple peices of 1/2" PVC, but no connectors yet. Couldnt find a flange small enough. Although we didn;t get the threaded PVC...oops. Hubby said we can thread it ourselves with some kind of tool lol. people thought we were nuts when we told them what we were making lol.

Woohoo! So family and I went on a lil shopping trip, Menard's was our first stop. Found the flange/connector peices for the stand! Yay, it's starting to make sense lol. Now hubby needs to cut the circle. wish me luck!