Wedding Cakes - How To Stack And Support Tiered Cakes

Step 1

Purchase separator plates, make sure that the plates are the same size as the cake tiers. A separator plate is the plate that will be placed beneath each tier. Each cake will require as many separator plates as it has tiers. One thing to be aware of is that the separator plates will have feet on the bottom in order to help the plates attach to the pillars.

Step 2

Center the very bottom tier of the wedding cake on a display board. The display board needs to be sturdy enough to hold the weight of the whole cake, so it is not recommended to have a cardboard display board. Use the separator plate that will be used for the second tier and lightly trace the perimeter of it into the icing of the bottom tier. This is done to give an outline of where the second tier will be positioned over the bottom tier. The next thing is to lightly mark four dots on the inside of the circle. These dots should be evenly spaced because that is where the pillars will go.

Step 3

Push four pillars in the cake where the marked dots are. Make sure that the pillars are pushed in all the way to the bottom of the cake so they will be touching the display board.

Note- If pillars are not desired, then dowels can be used instead. Make sure that the dowels are the exact height of the cake and push them inside instead. The dowels will now be flush with the icing of the cake, which will give the cake a finished appearance of the cake tiers resting directly on top of each other.

Step 4

Take the separator plate for the second tier and place it on top of the pillars, or dowels if that is what is being used. Make sure that it is centered so it will be evenly supported. Make sure that the feet on the bottom of the separator plate are centered on the pillars. Gently place the second tier cake on top of the plate.

Step 5

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each tier that the cake has, always making sure that the pillars or dowels touch the separator plate underneath it. As the cake gets taller the tiers will become smaller. It may be more convenient to reduce the number of pillars used for the smaller tiers.

Step 6

Finish by placing the top tier in place.

To buy cake pillars and dowels have a look at the Cake Decorating Store. We sell a wide range of decorating supplies and accessories and ship worldwide.