victorhooi said:
Thanks to both of you for your help.
I should probably state as a disclaimer that my culinary experience is a bit limited still...lol...so I apologise in advance if you have to hold my hand a bit on this.
No need to apologise -- it's fun! Sorry can't be there in person to show you.
squirt: I guess I'm going for a sponge cake, since it sounds easier. Any recommended recipe for this, so that it will hold up? With the frosting, I'm not actually sure, what would you recommend based on easE?
Any basic, reliable cake recipe which produces a fairly dense cake (i.e., not angel food). Yellow, chocolate, whatever. Preferably one you've made before and been succesful with!
Ayrton: I'm actually located down here in sunny Australia
. Not sure if Wilton products are available here, but I'll have a look around in the supermarket tomorrow. I had a look around the Wilton site, looks very useful, is perhaps a bit daunting at first. Will I need to buy a tin like this?
Mini Tiered Cakes - Wilton
Don't find mention of Wilton in Australia, but that doesn't mean it's not there. In the U.S. cake decorating supplies (or at least Wilton) are sold in crafts shops, however, if you're in or near a major metropolitan area, you'll find a professional supplier somewhere. Check your phone book.
No, you wouldn't need special tins -- just regular cake tins. You would probably need at least two of each size, however. The mini-tiered cake pans result in really tiny, tiny cakes -- something like 4 inches tall!
P A Baker: I think they might have been referring to the dowels, but the stand idea is looking nice, if only to stop my amateur attempt from falling in on itself.
Dowels are always needed if you have more than one cake stacked, whether you use separating pillars or not. The exception to this is if you use a product which is meant to cover both needs, i.e. a set of pillars which goes through the cake below, providing support for the upper cake. You can see the difference in this diagram from the Baking911 site:
cakes_assemble_tiers
To be perfectly clear about the function of each: dowels are buried within the cake itself and exist purely to provide the support for the cake above. Pillars are decorative additions sometimes added to separate the cakes from one another and to add height and drama.
To be honest, this entire thing is starting to look a bit daunting...lol...I'll hit the cake store today, and ask about the dowel rods, the tiered tins, and also those cake stands, to see what I can try.
I was thinking something basic like this:
Wilton: Recipe Box: Gifts Of The Harvest!
would do the trick, but would anybody know of even more "hold-your-hand" instructions than this, for doing a very basic tiered cake?
Thanks,
Victor
I'm going to swear to you that if you can bake a couple of cakes, the rest is NOT as difficult as you might imagine, in fact it's remarkably simple yet very impressive. The dowel rods are just normal wooden dowels, so you can get them at a woodworking/DIY sort of store (they'll be cheaper too!). Evidently plain plastic drinking straws can be used as well, although you need a few more.
The "Gifts of The Harvest" cake looks very do-able to me so don't give up yet Victor!
I suspect you didn't find the right section on the Wilton site if you're still looking for "hold your hand" instructions: it's under the Wedding section, both "general cake information" and "making the cake." It's there where you'll find the diagrams for how much each size feeds, and also the step-by-step instructions for making, icing, stacking, etc. the cakes, all with very nice photos. Try again!