Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi Madeitwithlove
Thanks for the information yes I have looked at this video. However I feel it would be tricky to ice two very deep cakes in one go. That was why I thought icing them seperately, stcking them one on top of the other, then putting a broad band of flexi icing to hide the join may work better than if I sandwiched both cakes together and then iced both of them in one go as Paul does in the vintage pearl cake. But if I did it my way would it actually look like the two cakes had been iced together in one go? That’s what I am trying to imagine. Any further thought would be helpful thanks very much.
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Personally I wouldn’t go for that method unless your design had a ribbon or band across that section or it may look like you have put two cakes on top of each other, also unless you can coat and ice them perfectly so that they aligned all the way around it could look like a wibbly wobbly cake.

Depending on your design, if you are not feeling confident to ice a tall cake the traditional way then there is a method you can use where you roll your icing out lay the cake onto it and roll it up, like a sausage roll, stand it up and then either trim off the excess icing, cut a disc to go on top and blend it with your fingers, or rather than cut the excess off you can bring the icing into the middle and smooth it then trim it in the centre, you would need something to cover this centre bit in terms of decoration or if it was a middle tier it wouldn’t matter.

You also have a seam down the back of the cake so depending on how it will be viewed this could be a problem, unless your design called for stripes up the cake in which case you could easily cover the seam if you couldn’t blend it well enough.

I would say practice the with some tall dummy cakes and you will grow in confidence before you ice a real cake. You will get there and you will be able to ice a tall cake if you are calm and confident.

Which cake are you doing?

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Hi bellescakes

I think you would be able to see a slight join. How about some lace rather than broad icing? If I was doing this cake the way you’ve described I would get some inexpensive sugar paste and have a trial run on dummy cakes.
My preferred method is as show in this photo tutorial http://partycakescanberra.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/tutorial-how-to-make-a-double-barrel-cake/
I use a 24inch rolling pin for icing tall cakes. If you don’t have a pin that long you can use a plastic plumbing pipe which must be washed and sterilised first. You’ll have a join which can be smoothed in very gently. Or if you want to make that the front of the cake how about some pretty buttons going all the way down. I’ve see that on one of Zoe Clark’s lace cakes. If you google Zoe Clark lace and buttons wedding cake you’ll see what I mean.
Do you think this method would work for you? I find it much easier than trying to do the up and over which weighs too much for me to lift. It helps to have an extra pair of hands around! Let me know what you think.
Mean while I hope other members will have an input too. x

Hi Madeitwithlove and Leeanne

Thanks for your advice. I actually meant I’d cover the join with a broad, in depth/inches, band of flexi icing lace made on a lace mat. But just wasn’t sure what the finished effect would be. Perhaps I am being a bit over ambitious here and ought to lower my sights by making a lesser depth extended tier.

I will certainly look at the websites suggested thanks.
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