Should I Add Supports To A Single Tier Sphere Cake?

Decorating By Meridae Updated 22 Jan 2017 , 2:04am by Meridae

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Meridae Posted 19 Jan 2017 , 7:57am
post #1 of 6

Hi all - I'm making a pokeball cake (y'know, from pokemon!) and have made my 'darker than my cold black heart' devil's food cake for the two halves of the sphere. Cakes were baked in my half sphere tin, so no carving involved, yay! What I'm wondering is whether I should put a cakeboard between the two layers and a dowel in the bottom half. I've watched a Yolanda Gamp tutorial video on You Tube, and she doesn't put any supports in - just a layer of butter cream in the middle (I was thinking if put a board in the middle, I would put torte each half and put a layer of butter cream in the middle of each half) and hers held up well. Our chocolate cake recipes are very similar except she uses butter in hers and I use sunflower oil. Also I will use swiss meringue butter cream instead of italian?


Thoughts? This is my first cake for someone I don't actually know (but she is the sister of someone I do know who is VERY particular and not that keen on me as a person, so I don't want to fail her!)


Thanks


Meri


P.S does nayone else get home from a full days work and wish they could just take the days they are cake making off?? I find it very hard to get home and then start baking/decorating! Why does everyone want cakes on Saturday morning??? ::grins::

5 replies
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kakeladi Posted 19 Jan 2017 , 11:26pm
post #2 of 6

It would not hurt to use a cake board between the 2 1/2 spehers but there is no need to dowels as the weight factor is just not there.  Using a cake board between will allow for easier cutting/serving - the only reason for it's use.

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640Cake Posted 20 Jan 2017 , 2:35pm
post #3 of 6

My issue with Yolanda Gampp's cake is travel.  She did not secure the cake to the board - not that she would have needed to, since she wasn't going anywhere with it - but I am assuming your cake will be traveling.  I don't think a dollop of buttercream or chocolate would hold it, though I could be wrong.  When I did a round cake, I had a three nails pounded through my drum from the bottom to hold the cake, but I also used RKT for the bottom half and then cake for the top - and yes, I used a board in between - as kakeladi pointed out, it's easier for serving/cutting.  I did not need many servings, so this worked out for me. I am wondering if you would need something like a center dowel to keep the cake from rolling while traveling?  Maybe melted chocolate would hold it onto the board enough, not sure.  I am not one for center dowels, but I think I would go that route for a sphere made entirely of cake.  Something to secure the cake to the board, so it doesn't roll around while transporting.

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Meridae Posted 20 Jan 2017 , 7:57pm
post #4 of 6

So in the end I didn't put a cakeboard in the middle, but I did put two short dowels in the centre of the bottom half (although not really sure if they do anything without the cake board). The cake has held it's shape with no problems overnight (although I did literally have nightmares and had to get up twice to check on it!). I think my devil's food cake is dense enough to support it self - I think a less dense cake would have problems.


640K - I did have issues with it wobbling when I first put it on the board, but I'd covered the cake board in fondant and cut out a circle of it where the base of the cake was to sit, and that seems to have given it enough of a 'cradle', along with the weight of the cake itself, that it's not moving anymore.


Is it 100 percent perfect - no way . . . I had real trouble cutting the strip out in the middle (where the black strip goes) neatly . . . and I'm very bad at levelling cakes so it's far from perfectly round and . . . well, like all of us, I could go on listing the floors for ages.


Overall I think the Mum and wee boy will be happy with it. I just wish I worked more neatly (I think some of that is tools though - I think if I'd had an exacto knife, the fondant strip would have been neater. And cutting out letters by hand is always difficult for me but I wanted to do the wee boy's name in Pokemon font!)


Thanks for your help everyone!

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kakeladi Posted 20 Jan 2017 , 9:48pm
post #5 of 6

As you mentioned using dowels w/o a cakeboard is a total waste of time and work.  There is a *very slight* possibility they might have helped steady the cake for movement IF you pounded them hard enough to 'bite' into the base board, but it did nothing to help  hold up/support that upper 'layer' of cake.  Using a filling would have done the same to help :)

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Meridae Posted 22 Jan 2017 , 2:04am
post #6 of 6

Yeah, that's what I figured - but while it didn't support the cake, it helped support the decorator by letting her delude herself. Heee.


Anyway, the cake was a hit - the Mum called it 'stunning' and the wee boy was very happy. I have to keep remembering that in the middle of a busy birthday party, very few people stop to look at the rough edges! First impression/visual impact was good and everyone is happy (doesn't mean I'm not storing up 'things to do better' for next time though).

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