Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi, I am making my first wedding cake & I’m starting to panic about a few things, the cake is 3 tier stacked (10″ fruit, 8″ & 6″ sponge) with swags, a clay topper & roses.
Can anyone answer the following questions:
– Should I leave the iced cakes overnight before stacking?
– Will I need a central dowel to hold the cakes together? (very nervous about doing this)
– Will the top layer support the clay topper or will I need dowels?
– Do I need to add tylo to the fondant for the swags or will this make it too brittle?

Your help would be very much appreciated, I wish I hadn’t taken this on now!

Hi parke1504

I’ll try and answer your questions in order of asking, here goes:

Ice and dowel the cakes and leave to dry overnight before stacking.
It’s up to you if you want to put a central dowel in but it isn’t necessary if you adhere the tiers carefully
with Royal icing or ganache and let it set
It would be safer to place your clay topper on it’s own decorated small cake card and dowel the top tier before placing.

To make the swags just add a small amount of tylose to your sugarpaste to strengthen it so it doesn’t stretch too much. I think gumpaste swags would be too brittle. If you’ve got gumpaste made already add some icing to it so it slightly softens.
Don’t be intimidated by the cakes, I’m making a four tier today and I have the jitters too! If you have any more problems just keep posting.