Dummy In Wedding Cake

Decorating By Elle26 Updated 19 Jan 2017 , 4:34am by Frank68

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Elle26 Posted 17 Jan 2017 , 9:08pm
post #1 of 4

Hi all,

I've been asked to just decorate a three tier wedding cake. Bride wishes to cut costs so she's baking the cakes herself and would like me to decorate. However, she wants the middle tier to be a dummy. Is this possible? Or should I advise her to do either top or bottom cake as the dummy? I've never done this layout before and I'm worried that the middle dummy won't give the top cake enough support. Also, would I need to insert a dowel through all 3? Any advise would be appreciated!

thanks in advance!

3 replies
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AAtKT Posted 17 Jan 2017 , 10:02pm
post #2 of 4


How much cost could it really save to bake herself and you just decorate?  

And, you are going to decorate cake someone else has made?  I see a whole slew of problems right there... 

Depending on your location's laws, that may not even be feasible...

As for the dummy tier being in the middle... no problems... support under the dummy in the tier below just like you would for any other cake and don't put any supports in the dummy for the tier above it... I feel it is up to you if you use a center dowel or not... do you usually?


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kakeladi Posted 17 Jan 2017 , 11:00pm
post #3 of 4

Quote by @Elle26 on 1 hour ago.........been asked to just decorate a three tier wedding cake. Bride wishes to cut costs so she's baking the cakes herself and would like me to decorate. However, she wants the middle tier to be a dummy. Is this possible?

Boy are you asking for trouble!!  There is little savings in having someone else bake the tiers.  Does she have the right equipment?  Does she know to level the tiers properly?  Believe me I have lived through this nightmere :(  You don't want to go there. 

To answer your ?:  yes it is possible to make the middle tier a dummy.  Should be no problem *IF* the tiers of real cake are properly baked, leveled, doweled and stacked.

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Frank68 Posted 19 Jan 2017 , 4:34am
post #4 of 4

I'm with everyone else. There's only downside to her baking the cake for you. You'll have no room for error and at the mercy of her recipe (too soft, etc). 

I regularly swap in real/fake tiers when people want much larger cakes than what they really need. I don't use center dowels due to SPS system. Support for tiers under fake tiers is the same as a real cake. Anything directly above it does not need to be doweled since it sits on a dummy.

Can you tell which tiers were fake and real below? 

[postimage id="6251" thumb="900"]

The two top tiers were fake in this cake . It fed 125 people.

-Frank

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