Wedding Frekechild - need your advice!

[Pandora II]

As the resident baking expert, I was wondering if I could call on your expertise for a bit of advice!

I''m making my own cake.

4 tiers of ''drunk'' fruitcake covered in marzipan and royal icing.

I know I need to dowel the cake, but I''m not sure what I do in order to stack them!

I also want to keep the top layer for ''birth of first child'', so I need to be able to seperate them!

Do I put each layer on a base first before stacking? If so should I use something like the wilton white things between the tiers?

If I don''t put a base under each layer, how do I dowel them properly?

Do I ice each layer separately before assembly?

I may have more questions I''m afraid!

 

[ladypirate]

Well, I''m not Freke, but I can answer at least a couple of your questions.

With tiered cakes, each layer will sit on a cardboard round the same size as the layer. The way I was told to do it by my cake decorating class teacher was to trace around the cardboard round on the layer below, then put 6 or so dowels the same height as that layer spaced equally around the center of that circle (does that make sense?) Those will support the weight of the next layer. Place the cardboard circle down and put the next layer on top of it, then repeat until you''re done. Once you''ve done all the tiers, sharpen one end of a dowl and push it down through the middle of all the layers to keep it stable.

If you''re doing pillars in the middle, place the dowels below where the support legs of the pillar segment will be.

And yes, ice each layer first, but decorate after.

 

[Pandora II]

Thanks, that''s very helpful!

My cakes are 11", 9", 8" and 5"

I''m buying a 12" drum board for the base, but they don''t make 5"drums.

Should I have the drum boards for all the layers, or a thin one. My worry is that with the thin ones, it won''t support the weight of the tier above - ie the dowels will go through the cardboard into the cake below. If I use the drums, I''d never get a dowel through the whole thing!

Also, since I am marzipaning and icing the cakes, the cake will be bigger than the board if I buy the exact size - do I buy a bigger size or just marzipan over the board as well?

 

[ladypirate]

By drum boards, do you mean cake circles? The dowel should pierce all of them as long as it''s sharp. if you''re really worried about it, I suppose you could pierce the center of each one first just to be on the safe side. Also, the cake boards should be the same size as the cakes. Since you''re going with some sizes that aren''t the normal ones for cake circles, I''d get one size bigger for those and just cut them with an x-acto knife to get them the right size. I''d also just ice over the boards as well so you get a uniform look to the whole cake. Since you''re doing royal icing, you may want to marzipan the individual layers then ice the whole thing at once so it comes out really smooth looking.

Also, when you save the top layer, double wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in an airtight container when you freeze it--that should make sure it''s moist when you defrost it.

 

[FrekeChild]

Wow this is a doozy of a series of questions. I wish I could call you and try to explain it all that way!! Can you post a pic of a traditional English cake??

Ok, if you can (being in the UK and all), I would recommend buying this book: link

Deep breath...

Ok. LP knows what she''s talking about. I''ve actually never dealt with the English wedding fruitcake, but I''ve made entirely too many cakes (and even more cupcakes!) so I imagine it''s basically the same thing.

You can use the Wilton white things (no idea on the technical term) I''ve used a size smaller so that the plastic doesn''t stick out from underneath. Are you going to have it with layer stacked on top of layer or are you going to have any cakes on pillars? Because pillars get a little more complicated...
If they are just stacked, I would put them on cardboard circles/wilton things and ice them like that-so that the icing meets the edge of the cardboard or whatever else you use. (What are drum boards?) So we have a cake on top of a weight bearing flat object, you ice it, you''d marzipan over the board as well, then the next step would to be to stick wooden dowels-one in the very center of the cake, and the others in a circle around it (I usually only use 4-but you can use more if you wish)-but it needs to be about an inch smaller than the size of the one that goes on top of it. It''s VERY important that those dowels match up perfectly with the height of the cake-but you can measure one and then use it to cut the other ones. Now this SOUNDS like it would be rather unstable-but these cakes are HEAVY, so the weight and gravity are totally on your side. Its the weight that keeps the cakes together. And just so long as the dowels are in straight, you will have no problems in that regard. If you use the Wilton things, you''ll still need the dowels, you''ll just have to be careful where you place the dowels-that they aren''t directly underneath the pokey things that come out of the bottom of the the Wilton plastic things.

Is this making any sense? And I''m not sure of the covering-is it cake, then icing, then marzipan or cake, marzipan then icing?

Fluffy American cakes can weight around 50+ pounds, I imagine that the English cake would weigh a ton. So the problem is transportation. With the cakes that I''ve made, I''ve stacked what I needed to stack where the cake is built, and transported it in pieces, and then put it all together when I got it to the venue. But with a 4 tier stacked cake-it''s going to weigh a massive amount-and probably be about a foot and a half or taller-so it will be uber hard to transport.

This is so much easier to explain in person.

You don''t put a dowel all the way from top to bottom-you run the risk of ripping through all of the cakes if any movement happens.

Ok. I think I''m going to stop now. I''m sure you''ll have questions-so go for it!!!

 

[Pandora II]

I think we are getting there! Hooray!

Okay, Pandora's English Wedding Cake 101:

- Make a very heavy fruitcake - currents, sultanas, raisins, cherries, glace ginger, lemon & orange peel, dried cranberries, dried apricots which have soaked in a brandy/rum/port/ginger wine mix for 24 hours. Cook each, keep in airtight tin and feed every month with brandy/run/whisky/whatever is in the cupboard (I made mine last November).

- 3 weeks before wedding each cake is covered in real marzipan (ie home-made with ground almonds, not nasty shop stuff with almond flavouring

) - about a quarter inch thick on top and sides.

- Allow time to dry so oil in almonds doesn't discolour the icing

- 2 weeks before wedding ice the cakes. Royal icing is basically like concrete. You do 5 layers with a day's drying time between each - and you sand each layer down so it's smooth before you do the next one.

Drumboards look like this:

They're 12mm thick, covered in gold or silver foil and are dense cardboard. They can easily hold up under a 4 tier cake. You can't cut them.

We also have 3mm boards, 2mm boards and 1mm boards.

 

[Pandora II]

Does this sound like a good plan:

Put the 11" on a 12" drum board

The 9" on a 9" 3mm normal board
The 8" on an 8" 3mm normal board

and the 5" on a 5" 2mm board

Then dowel as you both suggest on each cake. My panic was this idea of sticking a dowel all the way through all the layers

.

I can ice the whole of the 6" board so that you don't see the base board at all.

The cake is immensely heavy which is why I am worried about not using decent sized boards - the thin ones you can cut round are probably fine for sponge cake, but I'm not convinced will take the weight of one of these.

I'm making the cakes up individually and then assembling them at the venue the day before - transporting them will probably induce several minor heart-attacks!

Does this seem sensible?

Thanks so much for all your help!

 

[FrekeChild]

Yes that sounds perfect!!

It also sounds like each cake weighs about the same as the same volume of concrete! That sucker is going to be heavy!! I''m so glad to hear that you''ll assemble it on site the day before-that is going to be so much less stress for you in the long run.

Transporting is TRULY the scariest part of making wedding cake-just be careful and take all the precautions that you can. I''ve taken multiple trips before holding them on my lap (someone else was driving) to get cakes there in perfect shape.

It sounds like you have it under control. Let me know if you have any more questions!!!