Wedding Cakes 2:Stands, Stacks, or Tiers?
April 2, 2008 by Marye Audet
Filed under Cakes
You have read Wedding Cakes part one, right?
There are so many ways to put together a wedding cake. Some are more complex, while others are simple, but honestly, with some attention to detail you can do this.
Wedding cakes come in all shapes and sizes, so the first thing is to decide how many guests you plan to have. If it is going to be a small, intimate gathering then perhaps you will just want to do a large sheet cake, cupcakes, or a layer cake. Even with these types, there will still be shapes to decide on.
I suggest you look at the theme of your wedding. For example, is it country-simple? Contemporary? Elegant? What is your gown like?
Take these things in to consideration when deciding on a shape for your cake but don’t be afraid to break out of the expected and serve 500 lime green polka dotted cupcakes at a very elegant reception!
There are tons of pan shapes but here are some of the ones you will most frequently see:
- round
- square
- hexagon
- oval
- heart
Wilton also has a set of petal pans, which have a daisy shape to them, as well as a set of paisley pans, which are shaped like a curved tear drop. Expect to pay $35.00-45.00 for the pan sets unless you have enough time to find them on ebay for less.
Once you have decided on a shape then you need to decide if you will stack it, tier it, or use a cake stand.
A wedding cake stand is easiest of all, because you just put the individual layers on their proper places on the stand and you are done! The can be very elegant and if you are uncomfortable with the idea of tiers or stacks this is the way to go. Some of the stands even mimic the tier type cakes. One of my favorites is this Wilton Garden Cake Stand
Here are some cakes that are made using the cake stands:
Next is the stacked wedding cake. In this there are several layers stacked, one upon another. Usually you don’t use more than three or four levels for this type of cake. Dowels are pushed down into the baked cake to help support the tiers. The cakes rest on plastic separator plates at each level. They can be any shape.
Remember that the top cake is usually saved for the first anniversary, and so do not count that cake in figuring servings. Here are some examples of stacked cakes:
Finally we come to the tiered wedding cake. These are a little more involved, as they are usually a combination of a stacked cake with one or more layers held up by columns of some sort. They also use dowels for support, and are really not that much more complex than a stacked cake. Because of the space between tiers you have room for creative decorations of many types. There are many types of columns and separators as well. Look at some of these tiered cakes:
- Tiered gazebo cake
- Tiers using cake separators
- Tier stack combo
- Some of my favorite wedding cakes are here
You can see how many different looks you can get in each type. Once you do one, you will be surprised at how easy it is. Next we will get into the looks of the individually shaped pans.
Image: Morguefile
Okay, the daughter I can see having an elegant wedding would SO go for lime green polka dotted cupcakes! What a fun idea.
Reading this with interest and filing it away for future use. And yes, I’ll contact you when the time comes.
Shoot. I was hoping you’d elaborate on using the dowels. Like, do they need to be flush with the cake, slightly taller, slightly shorter?… how do you manage to get them all the same height etc. They really intimidate me!
I’ve done a couple on tiered stands.
We also did one with a stand ( 6in, 10 in 12 in)and then a set of two of 8 inch on top of 10 inch. Yes, that was all for one wedding. My initiation into this. OY!
We discovered that any stand with styrofoam and pillars is iffy at best.Don’t count on reusing it and expect the leaning cake of Pisa LOL
We also discovered that we weren’t too fond of working with or eating fondant no matter how pretty it looks.
What’s your favorite icing decorating bag/tool? I cheat there too.
So many questions so little time.
Seriously, so far I have just been pretending I know what I am doing.
Oh yeah, What is the best way to transport cakes to the wedding location?
Jennifer..LOL!
Ginger..i am going to discuss all that..just am trying to take the whole thing in small steps.
Marye..hi, its nice that you are discussing this topic. I have always wondered how they stack the cakes, I know the theory but still am not confident enough of doing it, for fear that all the cakes will tumble down! Maybe you can have a video on how to use the dowels and stuff, it would really be helpful for us. Thank you.
I will try to find a video for when we get ot that point, min! Thanks for the idea.
Have been making wedding cakes for thirty years, and recently purchased the paisley pan set.I have yet to see any pictures of cakes using that set. Do you have any? Thanks so much
Why does this need moderation?
Caryl- I couldn’t find any pictures of that pan either. I tried for several hours so it may be that it is just hard to do or not popular?
All comments from new commentors are moderated by the blog software. It is because I get nearly 100 comments a day on an average that are spam or porn or just rotten. I prefer my readers not have to deal with that because sometimes it takes me a few hours to get back and moderate comments.
I am sorry for any inconvienience it caused you.