can I stack my own wedding cake?

kitty123

I am getting married next Friday and have bought 3 tiers of iced fruit cake from tesco to decorate myself. I would like to stack the cakes on top of each other. Can anyone tell me if this can be done without pillars or other implements? I have heard that the icing can crack - is that right? However, I have seen loads of photos of cakes stacked without any obvious signs of pillars! Any advice would be very much appreciated....Please help!!
Thanks

Penny_Watcher

My mum has made wedding cakes for family & friends. She says you have to be careful to spread the load carefully or there is a chance the bottom layer can split.

When she made mine it had pillars, boards and rod supports through the pillars! (Very pretty it was too - but it had more underpinning than Canary Wharf Tower )

She suggests that you either buy some thin cake boards the same size as the cake's layers or use some strong cardboard covered in tin foil or clingfilm (to keep everything hygienic). Then either buy some specially made plastic cake support rods and cut them to the depth of your cake layer or use twice as many strong drinking straws cut to length/depth.

You assemble your cake by pushing the rods/straws into the bottom layer so that the corners of the layer above are supported (plus maybe one extra rod in the middle if you're using tinfoil & cardboard).

All the rods are hidden inside the cake and only the edges of the boards can be seen. These are easily iced over with some decorative piping.

Hope this helps and all the very best for your wedding :happyhear

leni

see https://www.weddingscollection.co.uk/downloads/pillar_dowel_guide.pdf

the dowels are 25p each from a cake shop. Basically you put 4 or 3 doels into the cake to support the above cake, then mark the dowel where it come out of the top of the cake and cut the dowel and re-insert. repeat with the next tier and then stack, the dowels will support the weight of the above cakes without causing sinking or a calasped cake!

Becles

Make sure you do use the dowels or other supports.

When I first married, I wanted to bake and ice my own cake but my Mam insisted she had to bake it and a distant aunt had to ice it. Took the baked cakes round and gave aunt a picture of what I wanted. Was shocked when the phone rang 2 days later and she said the whole cake was finished.

Went to collect it and was very disappointed. It was obviously a rushed job, she'd used roll out icing instead of proper royal icing and it was only vaguely similar to the picture.

Had to stick with the naff cake as aunt was invited to wedding and Mam said her feelings would be hurt if I altered it or started again (note the lack of concern about my feelings!)

It wasn't until the day of the wedding that we became aware that she hadn't used the dowels or any other supports. She'd just stuck the pillars straight on the roll out icing which stays soft. Thankfully the hotel realised and had not errected the cake and explained the problem.

We ended up leaving the cake in pieces, then they put it up quick after the meal, we had photo's taken, and it was taken down again before it fell over.

So make sure you do it properly so you don't have to do this.

PS - I married again in April, and had a royal iced cake that I baked and decorated all by myself :T

shelly

Could you hire one of those "S" shaped cake stands so that the smallest cake is on the top and largest at the bottom? Then you have no chance of cracking or collapsing. I have no idea of cost and your budget so if they are too expensive just ignore me


Good Luck for next friday :T

kitty123

Hi everyone. thanks for your replies- I'm glad I asked as I had no idea it was so complicated. I may ask the venue who are providing the cake stand if they have a 3 tier one to make things easier...

Tondella

we were going to attempt this with the wedding cake we had made ourselves, but in the end wimped out and will be employing a lady who runs her own cake shop to ice and stack the cake. A tiered cake stand sounds like the cheats way out of this one. Good luck for the happy day!

rainbowrisin

Do you actually need all the tiers to be real cake?
I ask because you can get cardboard / styrofoam "fake" cakes, which can be iced up, but obviously weigh less than a proper fruit cake.
You can't tell the difference in appearance, but it does mean the bottom layer (which i presume you will want to be fruit cake) will be less likely to crack as there will be less weight.
Also, you may want to put an extra layer of icing on the bottom cake to "reinforce".
Hope that helps. enjoy the wedding, i'm sure the cake will look lovely.;)

Glad

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Helen118

Hello, i have seen the recent queiries on stacking cakes and i have one too and i need help!
I have been asked to decorate a wedding cake which is going to be 3 tier... the lady is bringing me the 3 already iced fruit cakes which she bought from m&s.
How do i stack them... what do i need and is this possible!?
Please help!!

neneromanova

You will need plastic/wooden untreated dowels that you get from cake shops. You will then need to put these into each layer that is having a cake on top of it to help support the weight. the minimum amount used is 3 but I put 5 in just to be on the safe side.