Hi all- I have been doing cakes semi-professionally for a few years now. I am still undecided as to the best way to do cake on top of cake. For example- I am doing a baby shower cake this weekend- it's going to be either a half sheet with the care bear character pan on top, or a 16 inch round with the cb on top. Do I need to put cardboard in between, dowel or do anything else to stabilize it? I am just not sure!! Any ideas?
when you stack cakes, you should have a cake board or piece of foam board cut to sit under the top cake. Cut dowel rods the height of your bottom layer and place them through the bottom cake to support the cake board and upper level. If you are transporting the stacked cake it is helpful to put a longer dowel through the entire height of the cake (sharpen the end with a pencil sharpener to make it pierce the cake board)!
If you are going to torte and fill the character cake I would do the method that nightowl suggests. I did a cake like this over the weekend for a christening. It was a full sheet cake with a cross on top. I made the cross to be about the height of a single layer (not the full pan) and placed it on top of the cake (no board underneath the cross) and then decorated it. It works well for me each time I do this method.
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