That day you've secretly feared since you started decorating cakes is quickly approaching. You've been asked to make a wedding cake - a five tiered, stacked wedding cake! And it's for your sister's wedding!
As you go over designs with your sister by day, you dream about the cake at night. The cake in your dreams is taller than any cake you've even seen. As bride and groom pose for the cake cutting ceremony pictures, you look on as each tier gradually sinks into the one under it, and just as your sister and her new husband smile and begin to slice their first piece of cake, the force of gravity and the domino follow take hold and the cake implodes.
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All four top tiers sink into the lowest tier, turning a once majestic charm into a giant pile of fondant covered cake rubble! (And then you wake up, covered in sweat, only to realize that this dream could unquestionably come to be reality.)
But wait! This horror does not have to come to be reality. And no, you won't have to add therapist bills to your cake allocation to get through your big project. These sorts of nightmares are general for first time wedding cake makers. Beyond a wholesome estimate of butterflies, you have unquestionably nothing to fear if you follow these tips.
Stacked Wedding Cake construction 101
Unlike wedding cakes with tiers that are separated by plates and pillars, the tiers on a stacked wedding cake appear to rest directly on top of one another. This is just an illusion since the cakes unquestionably rest on a theory of private pillars and plates. To stack a multi-tiered cake without plates and pillars is a very risky proposition with the weight of each cake.
Stacked cakes of more than 4 layers need some sort of maintain in the form of plates, spikes and/or dowels to keep the upper layers from sinking into the lower layers.
So whether your wedding cake will be stacked Victorian style (graduating round tiers) or à la chic with fondant covered gift-box style tiers, here are the basics:
To generate a perfectly constructed tower rather than an experiment on the effects of gravity on cake and icing, you can whether use a purchased set of cake plates and spikes, or you can build your own theory using cardboard cake plates and dowels.
To build your own system, pick up some 1/4-3/8-inch round cake dowels (or other food safe wooden dowels) and a hammer (yes, even if you flunked high school Woodshop) and follow these tips:
1. Plan the dowels' placement by centering a cake plate the size of the next cake to be settled on top of the lowest cake, and then marking the spot by pressing down gradually on the plate.
2. Within the boundaries of these markings, insert four evenly spaced dowels. Insert the first dowel level down through to the lowest of the cake and mark the dowel even with the top of the cake. Pull out the dowel and, using wire cutters, cut off at the mark. Cut three more the same height. Then push the dowels level down into the cake in the places you marked so that they form a quadrate inside the circle. (Be sure the dowels are perfectly even with the top of the cake for the best support.)
3. Place your next smaller tier on a round cake board of the same size, and then place it on top of the lowest tier. The dowels will forestall the top tier from sinking into the lowest tier.
4. Measure the next set of dowels from the lowest of the lowest cake to the top of the top cake. Cut the dowel at an angle to taper the end and cut it so that it is just slightly shorter than the height of the two lowest cakes. Insert the dowels tapered end first level down through the cake. When the dowel stops at the first cake board, give it a firm tap with the hammer to break through the board down to the lowest of the cake. To forestall the hammer from landing in the icing, place an additional one small section of dowel end to end with the measured dowel to hammer it into position.
5. Finally, ice over the diminutive blemish to hide the tip of the dowel, and your tower construction is finished! You can rest easy knowing that your wedding cake is garage enough to withstand the military of gravity. No more nightmares!
These stress relieving tips are courtesy of "Cake Decorating Made Easy!" Volume 2, which is ready at http://www.CakesMadeEasy.com.
Finally, here's one more tip:
Not all cakes have the buoyancy and mass needed to maintain the weight of multiple cake tiers stacked one on top of the other, even with the maintain of cake plates and dowels. So for the wedding cake of your dreams (not nightmares), use a tried and true wedding cake recipe such as a fruit cake, butter cake, dense carrot cake or any of the wedding cake recipes in "Cake Decorating Made Easy!"
Stacked Wedding Cake building - Tiers for Fears
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