Help!!!
I am baking my sister's wedding cake. On taking the 12 inch fruit cake out of the tin it has broken in two. 
I wanted to use this as the base of a stacked wedding cake.
I will be covering it in marzipan and rolled fondant and plan to stack with dowels and cake boards. Will the marzipan and fondant be enough to keep it together or do I need to re-bake?
Any guidance would be much appreciated!!!
Nika
How many tiers is the cake going to be? How far are you traveling? Is it a solid crack minor crack?
I read again it broke in two. If it was a time restraint I'd ice the middle of the cake and stick them together.
If you have time I would do another cake.
If its more than one tier you can still do the above but I would only assemble it at location. It also matters where the crack is because if you stick a dowel too close to the crack it won't be supported and could fall. So you will need to space dowels as far out from the crack as possible say an inch and a half or more.
If you are using plates with locking dowels it won't matter just don't assemble the tiers till at location.
Hi Nika, welcome. YOu don't mention the date of the wedding. A rich fruit cake needs at least 3 weeks to mature and have time to 'lace' with alcohol (or boiled orange juice). I personally like at least a month. 
IF you need to rebake, and don't have this time (remember a fruit cake will take 2-3 days to ice, as the marzipan needs a night to 'set', then the next day the icing (sugarpaste), and the next day the fine detail decorations....I think Royal Icing takes even longer as it will need 2 -3 coats and each needs a few hours to set.) If you need to bake with a shorter timescale pre soak the fruit (in alcohol, +/- sugar) for 2-3 days THEN bake, and you could be ready to ice within the week, so you could get a cake 10-14 days later.
I really don't know about sealing the crack with icing, as I've never done this, but it sounds totally doable. I'm sure the other posters will be more helpful there. Good luck.
Hi Nika, welcome. YOu don't mention the date of the wedding. A rich fruit cake needs at least 3 weeks to mature and have time to 'lace' with alcohol (or boiled orange juice). I personally like at least a month.
IF you need to rebake, and don't have this time (remember a fruit cake will take 2-3 days to ice, as the marzipan needs a night to 'set', then the next day the icing (sugarpaste), and the next day the fine detail decorations....I think Royal Icing takes even longer as it will need 2 -3 coats and each needs a few hours to set.) If you need to bake with a shorter timescale pre soak the fruit (in alcohol, +/- sugar) for 2-3 days THEN bake, and you could be ready to ice within the week, so you could get a cake 10-14 days later.
I really don't know about sealing the crack with icing, as I've never done this, but it sounds totally doable. I'm sure the other posters will be more helpful there. Good luck.
*Ideally* a rich fruit cake should have time to mature, but there have been many times I've used a very fresh fruit cake and it's been fine. Perhaps slightly more crumbly than a more mature one. But if needs must, it would be fine.
Also, as you're covering with sugarpaste, there's no need to leave the marzipan to set. I never, ever do that.
I think that if you can, it would be preferable to re-bake, as it's the base for all the other tiers of the cake.... without solid foundations, the rest of the cake might not be so stable.
If you really don't want to re-bake, could you use that as a cutting cake and use a dummy for the bottom tier? Just make sure your sister cuts the next tier up! LOL!!!!!
AThanks. Well the wedding is on the 13th July. I want to avoid a re-bake mainly for cost reasons. I realise now that the cake was too warm but i kinda smushed it together and in cooling seems to be sticking together a bit.
We take another look and decide. Either i'll use it of my work mates will get fat!!!!
Nika
AI would stick fruit cake back together with boiled apricot jam then carry on as usual but mark on the board where the break was so that you can stay well clear of that area when inserting your dowels. There is no need to dry out marzipanned cake before covering with sugar paste only necessary if covering with royal icing. Good luck!
Thank you all for replying. I think I will stick it together and hope for the best.
:)
AIt all worked out. The cake went down a treat :)
[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3090635/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
beautiful and congratulations on the success!
Well done, Nika! Love the circle of roses as well!
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