Hello! I am interested in making my own wedding cake- just the display cake. I have gotten into making a decorating cakes of different shapes and sizes over the past year or two. I thought it would be fun to make a display cake for our wedding. I would like to do something with tiers to put our cake topper on and cut. The rest of our cake (that people will eat) will be made by a local cakery shop.  

My concerns with making the cake myself include stacking it, thawing properly without sweating, and getting it to the reception hall in one piece and ahead of time. I can find someone to transport the cake the day of or before the wedding (there is a fridge on site) but I want to be able to have the cake stacked a decorated ahead of time so there isn't any last minute things (except the touch ups from transport that aren't avoidable). It's a 10 minute drive on decent roads, but I'm curious what steps the experts suggest for having a seamless transport of the finished product? How early would you suggest making the cake and freezing? Would you use dowels? Transporting frozen? I'm just crazy and should hire someone? Thanks!

Woah! That’s a huge undertaking! My brother got married yesterday and I made his wedding cake (my most recent upload to my gallery) for him. I made my buttercream in advance and froze along with the curds and purees that I used to flavor the buttercream. I baked the cakes on Monday. On Tuesday I torted, filled, covered, and stacked. Then on Wednesday I applied all the decorations. All that said, I worked all day on Monday and Tuesday  and I didn’t involve myself with any other wedding preparations and there were a lot of them! If you can manage all the work with the cake and wedding preparations then go ahead! The wedding was at our house so I didn’t have to deal with transport. I did use boba (thick) straws for stacking the cakes. If you do freeze the cake you can make it earlier but you might be able to get away with making it earlier. I have transported three tier cakes with just refrigeration and using boba straws as support. That said, many other cake central users would not advise what I do. I haven’t had the need to freeze an entire cake so I don’t have experience in that area. That said, if you do freeze you cake you should make sure that you are using a recipe that survives the freezer. Some cakes that are made with butter never fully come back to room temperature after you refrigerate or freeze, it’s just butter being butter, but it leaves a dry feeling in the mouth. I used a scratch recipe that I tinkered to avoid this problem by using a specific ratio of butter and oil. 

..........How early would you suggest making the cake and freezing? Would you use dowels? Transporting frozen? ........

I blissfully transported many, many (1,000?) wedding cakes.  Along the way I did have a few failures (accidents - a few not very fixable - yes, it happens to even the pros).   If you can have the cake delivered by someone you completely trust to handle such a delicate job - *great!*.  But.......it takes a special skill to drive a 3 tiered stacked cake and set it up even  the short distance you mention and good roads.  Keeping the cake cold before transporting and slow, steady driving is the key.  As for fzing/thawing time it depends on how big the tiers are as to how long it will take to defrost.   Are you going to use b'cream or fondant?  There should be little to no problem w/b'cream.   Fondant might sweat but still that should not be a problem if it is not touched in any way, shape or form :)  Actually the same for b'cream.  The sweating will evaporate usually within an hour or less depending on how much of a temp difference there is from frig (or fzr) to room temp.    Very definately you must use dowels - I highly agree w/the other poster - plastic drink straws will work just fine - again depending on how large the tiers are.  Persnally I  would not have it delivered the day before - the mornihg of is a much better choice - far less chance of someone coming in and toying with it.  Maybe someone will bring in some raw meat or chopped onion or garlic  to cook for the meal and put it right above the cake where the juices could drip into the cake- UUGGG!   OR some kids could  come in and stick their fingers all over it - tasting the icing :)   You don't say when the wedding will be but if you have room in your fzr you can start baking now.  Well wrapped in plastic it will keep for several months.  You even could fill & crumbcoat it before fzing depending on the filling used.  I have fzr fondant covered cakes w/no problems.   There were 2 tiers leftover from a party that I kept in the fzr for a few weeks -- just popped them into plastic bags.  I was very surprised because at time the  word was that fondant covered cakes could not be fzn.  Well, it worked just fine for me. 

I'm confused why this cake wouldn't also be used as the cake that your guests eat?  You are going to do all this baking and work and then all you are going to do is cut it and then serve cake from a local bakery?  At least for me, if I am going to put myself through the time and stress of baking and decorating my wedding cake in the week leading up to my wedding you can bet your butt that my guests are going to eat it!

If you really just want to decorate a display cake then use Styrofoam cake tiers for all the tiers, except the top which can then be used to cut.  This way you can do all the decorating WAY ahead of time and take your time on it so you get it exactly the way you want it.  And the transport of it won't be as worrisome as it would be with an actual cake.

A dummy cake is actually a great option if you don’t care about your guests eating your cake that you made yourself. You can take your time and make it farther away in advance with less worries since it can’t be eaten. However, you can make your own display cake and still serve it. I have gone to weddings where they serve all their guests cake from another bakery and they served their display cake to. The downside is that not all the guests were able to try the display cake. So it’s your choice whether you want a real or dummy display cake.  

Exactly what Freckles0829 and Paola said - make a dummy cake.  If you cover the tiers with fondant and decorate with fondant, gum paste or royal icing, it will last indefinitely and you can make it far in advance.  Personally, I would make a dummy with just the top tier real cake for the cutting and to save for your first anniversary.

Ok, I made this for a bride who insisted on ice cream cupcakes from her fav shop and groom who insisted on a cake to do the ceremonial cut a slice and feed it to each other.  All three tiers are dummies, but if you look on the right side toward the back, there is a little dip where I inserted a 3" section of real cake. I carefully measured and cut out a segment of styrofoam a little larger than the piece of cake I was going to insert, and covered all the dummies in plastic wrap, including the space I created. The reason for the plastic wrap was in case someone ended up picking at the fondant after the cut and I didn't want people eating fondant that was directly touching the styrofoam.

I then created a slice of cake using the 3 mini loaves I baked and stacked with butter cream filling, lined the space and inserted the cake. I covered the entire tier with buttercream and then with fondant. I then covered each tier in a thin layer of buttercream and fondant, then assembled and decorated.When I delivered it, I suggested they turn the cake so the segment is toward the back so it would not show up in pics but people can still see them cut it.

The cake was a hit! I was told it went exactly as planned without a hitch. And when people began asking why the cake was not cut and served the groom reached over, put his hands on the sides of the cake and lifted it up. First people gasped, then laughed, and guests came to pick pieces of the fondant off the dummies. So I WAS RIGHT!!!! lol It is one of my personal favorites,