Two Tiers No Waiting

cake1
Originally uploaded by madrobins

Last night was the last class of Intermediate cake decorating. The decoration was less important than the engineering on this one. I've made tiered cakes before, but didn't understand that there's some science to it, structurally. Like, you need to support the upper layer(s) so their weight doesn't squish the lower layers. Like you need to have a board under the upper layers, and that means you need to have some surface under the layer that will allow the board not to sink into the frosting, because...eew.

So: two 10 inch layers of yellow cake on the bottom, filled with my apricot preserves, crumb-sealed and frosted with rum buttercream. Measured the width of the top cake (7 inches) and marked out a one-inch border around the cake to mark out where the top tier should sit, and placed four supports (wooden dowels, Who knew?), and then put down a layer of rice paper to keep the board under the upper tier from sticking. Put the top tier on, all centered and nice.

Astute readers will notice that the damned upper tier, um, shifted a little. Note to self: rice paper makes the top tier a little too slidey for easy transport, thus the little dings around the upper tier. With cake assembled, I decorated it (basket weave and flowers) and then put the pansies on the bottom tier, added some leaves here and there, and put a row of shells around the base.

As I said: it's not what I had in my head, but it may well turn out to be the great-grandma of what I will be able to do later.