ASo my little cousin is having her sweet 16... but its not all princess and girly. She wants a 3d BMO cake from a cartoon called adventure time, :/ ?, ive never seen a show but off of this picture I have an idea. About 5 or 6 layers high...but, :( , what worries me is she want the layers without any boards in between..so not tiers. Any advice on how I should go about this? Dowel rods? Like cake "nails" or something?? Please help me. Thanks. :)

Ayou will still need some sort of plate or board (same size as the cake so you don't see it) to support the weight of the cake with the dowel. personally l sps system and would use that for support.

AYou have to use boards,not possible otherwise.

well, how high is your layers going to be? The safest way is to dowel every 4", that is with boards and dowels. I have gone up to 6" without supports, but even that can be risky. Its useless to create this awesome cake without supports and then it collapses on you.

Dowels without boards will be absolutely useless, the combination ensures that the bottom cakes doesnt sag or collapse under the weight from the cakes + deco above.

Sometimes you have to tell the clients  to accept what MUST be done to give them a great stable cake, and not let them tell you what they want

ADitto al of the above.

AThe customer (in this case your cousin) does not get to tell you how to do your job (or hobby). Your cousin doesn't know how to make cakes; that's why she's asking you to do it. I'm not trying to come off as harsh but if you know it needs a support system, use one.

again, ditto.

AWith icing in between all layers and boards she is worried about cutting it. As much as ive tried explaining the situation to her. Younger cousins and siblings...grr lol

Explain to her she can just lift the top cake off, and there will be no problem cutting either tier.  Does she think she has to keep it stacked to cut?

Liz
 

AShe doesnt want it in tiers. If I can attach the picture she found and wants ill show it. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3019109/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Yes, that is a double barrel cake, which is like two tiers of the same diameter, stacked on top of each other.

Liz
 

Does she want to serve each guest a 6" or 7" tall piece of cake??

Liz