The way I stack cakes in this tutorial is a very basic way of stacking and it moves pretty fast once you get used to it. I was working on so many weddings at that time that moving fast was important. But I will say that anybody who does cakes should aim for this if you are trying to be part of the cake business:“The faster you work the more money you will earn.”

A lot of times we see all these amazing cakes that are posted on the internet. Some of them look very complicated and time consuming. Cakes like that do happen but mostly for show, cake competitions and that special client who is willing to pay for “amazing”.Your typical client wants that kind of cake but their budget in reality only allows for something more basic. Most of the time they end up with a simpler cake than they originally fantasized. They don’t realize the time that goes behind  these amazing cakes and TV makes them seem easily achieved in an hour or so, when there’s really a whole day of work and days of preparation before that one hour show.

As cake designers we love to

create, to design. It’s really great to

have that beautiful cake at the end
that will look amazing, and we can
take photos of so it can be admired forever. But let’s face it, the money
is behind those simple cakes that
can be made fast and charged well.
The beautiful, amazing cakes are
mostly our goal as artists and a
great way to present our skills
especially in cake competitions.
In reality a big percentage of the population can’t pay for them.
Also, simple is fast and easy when
we start comparing. We all have
that day where we just want to get
our work done and that simple buttercream cake looks like heaven
in comparison to anything more complicated.

The true art of cake lies behind fast cakes made with quality. This is important especially when it comes to wedding cakes. A simple white wedding cake will stand out just because of its clean lines and smoothness. This in itself is hard to achieve but not impossible and it can be done fast as well. Practice does make perfect.

I use this stacking method to move quickly and it works. There will be many opinions, ideas, and choices on how to stack cakes. Some people prefer to use other systems and they can be great, but there’s an extra cost for those. That cost you can always pass on to your clients.

I will talk about other systems in another blog but for now I will leave you with this basic
stacking method. I have posted links to the website where you can get the cardboard dowels since I don’t sell those myself. Here is a link to the page.

Keep in mind that this tutorial is for your basic 4-tier cake or smaller. Cakes that are taller or are sculpted, require stronger base structures. I have many friends that dedicate their lives to do sculpted cakes because they have a passion for it. Sculpted cakes do take more time and the cost of making them are a lot higher. Make sure to charge accordingly to the type and level of work of the cake you have created.