I am making a "condo" cake using the wilton house cake pan and I am putting it on an octagonal cake. Does anyone have any suggestions for the best way to help this not fall. I will be traveling about 30 minutes in an SUV. It is a suprise cake for a co-worker. I was planning on putting 2 dowl rods in it from the top of the house cake to the bottom of the octagonal one...do you think this will be enough support. Also I was planning on covering the cakes in fondant. *Thinking* (still not sure how I am covering the house cake in fondant since all sides will show except bottom) Any suggestions are extreamly welcome. I have a little time to play around with this since I'm doing it for the 22 of Aug.

Thanks in advance!

A few thoughts...

If you make two house cakes and assemble them back-to-back, you may not need the octagonal cake. This could also help make the fondant application easier. Also, I think it looks better and is more stable. One house pan is too narrow, IMO. If you don't want the details on both sides, either shave them off or fill in with cake spackle before putting on the fondant.

As for the fondant application, plan out your design so that seams can be strategically placed where they'll be covered by bricks or shingles or wood trim or a tree or whatever.

To stabilize the cake, build the whole cake on at least 1" of foamboard (two 1/2-inch boards glued together). For even more stability, use a third sheet of 1/2-inch foamboard, cut a few inches shorter than your base board, and glue that to the bottom as a sort of "pedestal". Not only will it help with stability, but you'll be able to get your fingers under the main board much more easily.

Cut a board that will fit under your house. Insert about 4 straws or dowels in your base cake. Make sure to plan for where you're going to drive the long dowels in so they don't hit the straws/dowels.

I use at least two long dowels in cakes like this. If you only use one dowel, there's the rare possibility that the cake will "spin" if it's jostled loose. Can't happen if you use two dowels.

Of course, the long dowels will be sharpened and hammered all the way through your two or three layers of cake board.

I prefer to do most of the decorating after the house cake is placed on the base cake. It's really hard to move and position the house once it's decorated.

Here's a farm cake I've made many times using back-to-back house pan cakes on top of a single layer cake.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/90692

Diane,
I love the barn cake. Thank you for the suggestions. I am trying to replicate the condo that the person just closed on. I think you are definately right about it being too narrow, even for a condo. The cake will need to feed about 40 people. All sides will have something on them except for the "back" which in this case is the next condo. I had thought about doing a row of condo's but the person that I am in cahoots with and myself decided it would be better to just do the one condo. Also thank you for the cake board suggestion.

Happy Baking!