K8memphis

Well, I can get ultra pasteurized at the grocery store. It whips fine, I stopped using the additional stabilizer, no problem-o. But I do add sugar & vanilla.

Hi Jacque!!!! Greater minds than mine will answer here for sure, but this is what I do. I use smaller parchment bags to pipe with so that I can enclose the chocolate in my hand and the warmth will help 'keep things moving'--not entirely of course but a little-opposite of how you would pipe buttercream where you don't want to warm it up. So yes I guess I am snuggling with the chocolate. There are no tips used in the bags though, I just cut the tip off. When I am switching one bag to the other, I flatten the tip of the bag closed and fold the last little bit up. I fold it once if I am coming back to use it -I fold it more times if I am finished and want to store the choco in the bag so it all gets pushed up into more of a nice blob and I can just cut it out if I need more like to repair something or whatever. The paper of course makes it possible to just unfold the tip, press the crease back open and with the movement of the choco back through the tip, order is restored in the court and it comes out fine. You can also prime the pump there too when you are using a parchment bag like this without a tip/tube & just the parchment tip of the bag cut off. Crease the very end of the bag and fold it up--hold the fold there in the end of the bag closed with your fingertips and squeeze the bag so the choco flows toward your fingertips as if you were piping. Then take your fingers and slide the choco from the tip back wards, repeat the process--that will help too. I use a saucer on top of a pot of hot water to rest my bags on--making sure the tip comes in contact with the hot plate by propping the back of the bag up on the edge of the saucer. I either keep another pan of water going on the stove so I can switch out the pans or I keep the pan on the stove so I can re-heat easily as needed to maintain temperature. I err on the side of it's gotten a little too loose and runny because it is so easy to get it to cool off--easier to get it to cool off than warm up--but warming it back up is easy too with the microwave--or set it back on the saucer--I also use a plastic covered heating pad to hold chocolate where I want it. Again with the folded tip making contact with the heat. Unless I was piping something big and fast I would use smaller bags full so the heat of the hand keeps things going--you just have to be making more bags--I use the parchment and cut them in half and sometimes in half again to get the right size. Some people use the clear plastic disposable bags, but they blow out the sides for me creating giant tumor like blobules--ha! I will put pictures of some of this stuff in the tuxedo strawberry part of the demo cake blog. Hey, how are yah??? Y'know what though about chocolate??? You have to get on it's bandwagon, it waits for no man (ha). All of the temperatures play a part, the temperature of your hand, the room, the surface you are piping on, the heat of whatever you are holding it on, humidity--I'm sure there's a perfect temp to hold it at but the real issue is knowing the chocolate and how it works against whatever variables exist that day. In other words, playing with it on a day when you have time for it will mean much more than knowing the perfect temp is xyz degrees or whatever. The chocolate will tell you what's the right and wrong temperature, just listen/watch. It's a fat--you let it soften and harden like a pendulum swinging back & forth and capture/document those conditions so you can remember and be there the next time the chocolate goes where you want it to be. Whether you want it to be crisp and set up nice or flow easy or flow everywhere. And I used a boatload of oil, really a ridiculous amount of oil to make my red loosen up enough to coat properly--it worked though. I want to be as cool as Nightscotsman's & Jean Philippe Maury Patisserie's rice krispie treats when I grow up. Oops, sorry the picture will not re-size--but Happy Fourth Of July anyway!!!

Wow--Multiplied Congratulations on your First Anniversary!! My toast to you this morning on the start of your second year, "May each succeeding year be better." (clink, clinkclinkclinkclinkclink etc. of the coffee cups* to the computer screens across the planet) "TO CRIOLLO'S" *coke cans, beer bottles, water/wine glasses, champagne flutes etc etc etc)

Oh yes Oh yes, the groom's cake. See I had to mentally push that puppy right outa' my head or so much more of it would have ended up in my mouth, on my hips, you know the drill... Umm, it was a big thick fudge brownie on the bottom--I put a corrugated cardboard type sheet board in the bottom of the half sheet & quarter sheet pans--cut to fit--just because I wanted zero issues getting them turned out of the pans. I lined in waxed paper Why did I line in waxed paper??? I don't know--it works great for cake, cheaper than parchment but I had to pry it off the (%$#) bottom of the brownie hahahayeahnotfunny. Pry, scrape, blow torch it with my trusty hair dryer. Got it off. grr So next time, parchment aheh. But umm, I used multiple flower nails and a heating core to help the brownie bake off more evenly -- I'm sure I had the towels around the pans too. The wet towels and all the extra metal help the batter to heat up more evenly. Plus it adds a nice bit of moisture in there too. Y'know how stuff bakes on the edges and by the time it bakes in the middle the edges are over baked and dry. And especially in a half sheet pan that's a lot of extra surface to cook. So would this not be heavy metal baking??? Anyways, baked that brownie off completely, had the cheesecake batter ready to roll poured it on, re-wet the toweling and baked it again. I just basically hoped & prayed it worked out. I was in uncharted water--not that it hadn't been done before, but it hadn't been done my me before. And that is not a smart thing to do at all for a huge emotional event like this. Even without the emotion --I would always make one first to test it way before the real deal--I just really had such a good handle on the bride's cake. She had picked it out a year previous and never waivered. Y'know--I'm just realizing as I write this, I was totally out of character doing that groom's cake. I wasn't even positive of the decor until a couple weeks ahead. I had wanted to do maybe a graphic cartoon spiraling up a whimsical cake--because he is a writer--I had thought of a nice sparkley white fondant colorful cartoon strip against a background of deep rich chocolate icing. And they love to go hear bands so I was gonna do a band & a club type of scene. The cartoons would be vignettes of their lives. Then one day I mentioned, 'choco curls & tuxedo strawberries' & he said that sounded cool--so that design was also easy for me too. I'll keep the cartoon & band ideas 'in the file' for another day. So I got the brownie/cheesecake baked off--maybe I chickened out on the cheescake part a bit--hey it wasn't New York style three inch thick cheesecake, ok? But it was over an inch -- respectable and it made a great 'filling' between the chocolate decadence. But any taller would not have served well I do not think. I mean I think it would squish out not cut & serve cleanly. Besides, I didn't want it to be an oreo cookie on the bottom either. I can't wait the get to the chocolate curls & strawberries!!!

Here's the easiest way.. go to soft peaks with like one cup which is 1/2 pint of whipping cream and add 2 tablespoons piping gel and a little powdered sugar like two tablespoons and go to stiff peaks. However, I have recently been convinced by my cake buddies to just use the whipped cream without all the falderal, that it will hold up as well as the stabilized stuff--and they were right. (Well yeah and add some vanilla too :)

Wow, you all have been so super with your comments. I just want to thank you all if I haven't already, Mukbo, In2Pastry, Lydia, JamericanDiva, RuthWells, Curlz, ChezCherie, JSkilling, Tejon, Meredithla, and CherylShuen, thanks for your sweet and enthusiastic comments, quips and kudos. DiH, thanks for everything! You are truly a beautiful person. I laughed so hard at your comment, geez how long can lunch take Lexy, umm, when the kids were little I had to 'cake' around feeding troughs & times--later on I did develop that snarl you recommended :)--now I realize it's my husband's kitchen too, but I keep the snarl handy & ain't afraid to use it RachelD--you think more of me than you should I'm sure, but I especially thank you so much and your husband too for your generous comments. Matsu and Kjente2, thanks for reminding me to serve you all a slice. Got for it Tweety69Bird!!!! We can all talk you through it too!! PatrickS, thank you! And from my dear friend from another board, Clary, who is a fan of yours from Santiago Chile, "Please tell Patrick I love his indecently close up pictures! Steve Klc, plenty of cake angels to go around!! Nightscotsman and onehsancare, THANKS for fixing/helping with my recipe omission!!!! Last but not least, Wendy Wendy Wendy. It was awesome of you to encourage me and all of us to put our stuff out there--hope it helps a lot of people... ...to call a baker or fasten their seatbelts!!!!! edited to spell check

I never heard of spraying with water. Did you bake them long enough??? And you can pull the soft membrane out of the inside and discard it too so it does not redistribute the moisture, y'know. How hot was your oven?? Your batter looks good. And I bet you could re-bake any unfilled ones you have to dry them out a bit and crisp them up. They sure photographed pretty!!!

>>>Wendy, great golf cakes! Nothing 'funner' than building bunkers, greens & traps, waxing eloquent wielding the spatula. I love the one with the ball sitting right outside the hole! >>>Marmish you did great!!! Whooo hoooo Wow, first time with fondant wasn't it??? I especially love the humor around the sides!! Your golf ball is awesome!!! Great stuff!!!

It's a nice doctored formula base for other cakes too--you would tweak it around for other flavors. I use other recipes for my other cakes--so I myself only use this in the white mode. But some people use it in lots of different flavors. My friend Joy used it today and she substituted buttermilk for the water, even though it's got the sour cream and she also used a box of chocolate pudding for chocolate cake. I think she used 3 or 4 eggs and I'm not sure about the almond. She was actually making a checkerboard cake. There's another friend who uses this for strawberry cake and uses a box of jello and a container of frozen strawberries and substitutes equal parts of strawberry juice for the water---and then stirs in the strawberies too--but this combination never has worked out for me, but it sure works for her. But she used all purpose flour too--I changed my mix to use the self rising. Yes it is uber flexible--use your own judgment.

Wow, Kerry, that was a great behind the scenes look at things. So sorry about your poor broken arm! What a great save though. Hope you did not overdo it. Methinks your inspiration covers a distance ever greater than that!!!!! And Happy Birthday!!!! Your cake was fabulous!! :)

Hmmm, I don't think it's always like that, Badiane. For example, my little Mom lived in government subsidized housing--she got free meals. However there came a time when she could not eat that type of diet--if she had received a 5# bag of biscuit mix instead of the prepared meals it would go to waste because she could not eat white flour. If she gave it away so it did not go to waste no one would deserve a kick in the ass. At best she should not receive future supplies. Same thing. Big Lou's relatives gave it to him. Big Lou did not take aid--the relatives did for whatever reason. I'm not saying hunger doesn't exist and isn't a problem. Hunger sucks. I delivered a church care package to some 'needy people' one day but they did not want the milk powder and rice and oats and mac & cheese etc. etc. They wanted to give me a grocery list of what they wanted for free--yeah I don't think so--that's why God created paychecks--not food programs. Did you know you can buy fast food like pizza and Subway's with food stamps now??? Food stamps now look like credit cards--ebt it's called--there are two 'sides' to some states' ebt cards(electronic benefit transaction). There's the food side and the cash side. You can buy beer, liquor, cigarettes with the cash side of food stamps. The government does indeed have really good food--I promise hands down by far thee best cheese popcorn I ever had was made from the government 5# blocks of yellow cheese--sprinkle it on a pan full of popped corn and melt in the oven--to die for good. Supper-time!!

I've put fondant in my oven's warming drawer before to speed up drying with good and not so good results. Like a very low heat like a pilot light type of dry heat--a fan is a good idea too. I doubt the fondant will crack from dryness, spindly weight issues maybe. You do want to avoid melting it. And let it come to room temp before trying to handle it. It could be squishy in the middle & dry on the outside & when it cools off it'll probably be perfect. And you wanna be sure to put it on something that you can remove the piece from, like waxed paper or a silpat or cornstarch laden plate or something. :)

Awesome cake, Josette!!!

Yes that is it exactly. Thanks for doing that! And once again that list of ingredients is a recipe I tweaked but it is a recipe that is very common in cake circles. It's usually called White Almond Sour Cream or WASC--but my variation uses self rising flour and a whole egg.

Some ideas for you. Umm, on the golf clubs, you might want to consider using uncooked spaghetti or the mini pretzel rods inside the fondant for a teensy bit of strength since they are so long & spindly. As chocolate covered pretzels though that would work too because the choco smooths out the salt nubbies. And you could make the bottom part of the club with the fondant. Or or or--you could just 'bury' the golf club heads in the 'grass' if you needed to. Another idea, thinking of the spindly nature of golf clubs again--umm, it's ok to make them in two parts, the long handle & the fat squatty strike plate there on the bottom--because they have the potential to break when you handle them & arrange them on the cake. Or if they do break don't despair, just be prepared to 'glue' them back together when you set them in their place. Your golf ball sounds very cool--dimension wise--a golf ball cut from a cupcake would also work on a 9"--you would have a lot of green around it--keep all options open-have a couple backup plans going too. Sounds like a cool cake--oh and you can definitely add some flavoring to the fondant if you want--I used raspberry oil last time. Oils are more concentrated. Umm, on the dowel, drinking straws would suffice on that cake. Just stick them in and clip them off level or a tid tad higher with scissors. Here follows is too much information aheh... Oh yeah, one other thing, fondant tends to be kind of soft--kind of a softy. But it does dry out nicely eventually. So give your pieces plenty of time to dry. But what I'm trying to say is, If I were making golf clubs I would use fondant with added tylose which is a powder that helps the fondant to dry out crisper and so it adds a firmness. But the spaghetti or pretzels wrapped with fondant should do ok without the tylose. Or I would use half gum paste and half fondant commonly referred to as 50/50. Gum paste is an edible substance that no one really ever eats used to make the fancy flowers & stuff. It's real elastic but dries fast & crisp & more secure than fondant. Because after all fondant is made to slice & serve eventually. So not to confuse you at all--but all that to say you want to shore up your golf clubs a bit with something to help them not to break. Possible choices are, pretzels, spaghetti, tylose powder purchased at cake store, gum paste, long long drying time. Just some golf club thoughts

Oh my total gosh--just been so untogether lately!!! I loose things constantly and I've looked several times for my recipe I quoted for the cake I baked here, so I could double check it which I always do double check but I still can't find it--it's probably right by the dang yardstick somewhere--but I left out 2 T of oil and one and third cups of water--so so sorry!!!

Oh dear, oh dear I always try to be so totally careful with recipes--WATER--it takes one and a third cup of water--I've just been out of my element lately--so sorry!!!

Wow--way cool--wonderful highlights--sounds like a great success--multiple congratulations!!!

Well, as non-she-she as it is to some, the folowing formula uses pre-measured ingredients but I have cut out star shaped mini tier cakes out of this and covered them with fondant--no problem-o. It's great cake. So this is a great formula that is very common in cake circles. This is a great performing cake, makes a sturdy tier cake that will serve and stack well, but still fluffy and light. One box Duncan Hines white cake mix one cup self-rising flour one cup super-fine sugar teaspoon vanilla extract teaspoon of almond extract cup of sour cream 3 egg whites 1 egg a little salt two tablespoons of oil Toss it all together, maybe sift the dry stuff if necessary, mix well for two mins, bake at 350. These mixes have ingredients with those plastic properties that just simply can't be beat for resilience, performance, not to mention moisture retention, handling and consistency. These companies have sunk millions of dollars into the research and development of the powder placed in these little boxes--it's good stuff--who knew. Much maligned, offensive to some people for some reason, although they would be the first ones to use pre-made puff pastry or phyllo dough--what's the point?? Just a good cake thought.

Yes, of course I do--thanks so much!!

Hmm, greater minds than mine will answer but I crank up the fire under my double boiler considerably so I can get the temperature up. My arm would have flat fallen off after one hour--I'd of never lasted for two! I don't know about re-heating it though. Test a little bit--maybe zap it in the microwave. Could you easier slice it for a nice level finish--or freeze it & slice it??? Hey, y'know what?? I got my lemon cream out of the freezer--had a little leftover--and I grabbed a knife still hot from the dishwasher drying cycle--it cut smooth real nice--y'know what--you could even get creative with a few strips & stuff too--they might, might not stand up at room temp--but they could still curl around & look cool. Ooh ooo, pour it out on a sheet tray, get it the depth you want for the tarts--freeze it then use cookie cutters--maybe??? Or even mound it up in the tart shell & smooth it with a hot knife. But but but I made like four times the recipe or something and I used a quick read thermometer and it took a while but maybe like 20-30 mins. And I dipped the thermometer down into where the heat was--because a lot of my pan was up out of the heated area --y'know??? Just a rigged up double boiler--not a lot of the lemon stuff was directly over the heated water--more was hanging out above the heat--Plus I have to make myself slow down while whisking so I don't cool it as I stir. Random lemon cream thoughts. That should work out for you though--a hot knife. PS. It'd be a shame to have to eat it all and make more

Just toss it all in--sometimes I sift the cake mi- I mean the 'pre-measured ingredients' and the flour, but just y'know mix it a few seconds, scrape down the bowl, beat for two minutes --I bake at 350. It's a nice blank canvas type cake for splashes and any kinds of fillings--it bakes and serves very well--perfect for tier cakes--still soft & fluffy but firm too. Thank you, Meredith!

Oh yeah, don't forget two tablespoons of oil in that cake formula like I did writing it down.

No, I did not have a center support for this cake. And both strangely enough and not strange at all the wedding cake board disappeared afterwards, poof thin air. But it truly was disposable so no harm done although I could have recycled it. I do use a center dowel on tilty and whimsical cakes, so I can just punch holes in the boards and thread them onto the stand. How long did it take??? Whoa—a long dang time—seriously when I said it took 2 days and 25 years to make the flowers, it really did. Every ounce of everything I ever knew and everything I ever forgot is in those cakes—30 plus years. The day before & day of I worked from sea till shining sea. >>>>Here follows is too much information!!! But anyways… I planned early on to do as much of the advance stuff as possible. I budgeted a day for the cake stands & separations because I was creating as I went along too. There was no set of instructions to follow kind of thing. I really did not know what kind of groom’s cake stand I was gonna come up with either—just made it up. Now if I did the same thing again I could do it much faster. I budgeted a day for the two gallons of Pierre Herme Lemon Cream and 3 gallons of berry filling and the eight gallons of French buttercream. It took a full day to bake everything & fill & store the cakes. Full as in from 12-14 hours--due to the home oven only being so big-and the run to the cake store for pans at the last minute. That’s two layers of 16x14x12x10x8 plus the half and quarter sheet brownie/cheesecake combo each took two bakings because the brownie baked first, then I poured the cheesecake on top of the brownie & baked it all again. Then I baked the melted ice cream cakes separate. And don’t forget the anniversary cake. Now I sure coulda been more diligent but when you are not on the clock, you don’t have the same mentality. I allowed the day for it and I had all my fillings & icings ready so I could make the most of my freezer space. I mean figure just washing the 14 pans I used took more than a little while in that little bitty sink. However, a strange phenomenon sets in for doing cakes at home. I have spent beaucoups of overnighters pondering this and many other mysteries of the universe I’ll save for another thread. But when you are in a shop, you have a boss, even if it is just your schedule, you get a paycheck hopefully, you are on the clock—you are in the left side of your brain. You have responsibilities you must fulfill, you can organize, you are together. When you create, you are in the right side of your brain where time and language do not exist. Therefore, you get in that ethereal arena where there are no clouds, no clocks, and you hover between the living and the dead in creative nirvana, a sugarcoated never-never land of sparkling wonder and awe. Then much much later when you come to your senses, you know you’re not hovering anymore you are officially dead because it is freaking five o’clock and you gotta deliver thirty minutes ago. WHOAUGH!!!! But just remember to peak out & check the clock—even set the clock if necessary to alarm every 15 or 30 minutes—trust me on this one. J It takes days to plan & shop for everything and get it home. I shopped at six different stores several times each, the cake store, Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, Costco and umm the grocery store as well as Wallyworld (Walmart). I allowed a day for that. The brownie cheesecake deal was a first for me—I read up & made it up as I went along not even knowing for sure if it would work—so I had enough time budgeted to come up with something easier & fool proof if it bombed—but it worked so that was cool. I was worried that the brownie would be too dry with the double baking but it was fine. Then I switched gears and headed back to Costco for more eggs and enough butter to feel comfortable so I could do Swiss meringue buttercream instead of continuing with the French buttercream. And dang I got a great spot at the check out but forgot the sugar—had to go back & wait forever in the real long checkout line. Made the chocolate icing too—Hershey’s, recipe on the can, heavy on the cocoa—Thee ToTaL bomb—no really—company ate it on spoons afterwards--with the leftover I was gonna pipe chocolate roses & rosebuds to set up & dry so people could pop them in their mouths—yeah that didn’t happen. J See she, the bride, my kid, tried to assign me something to do on the day of the wedding—hahahahahahayeahrealwaynotfunny. I explained to her that on a sunny day with a tail wind delivering a wedding cake is a nerve-wracking high stress event, which she knew anyway—then with me being the mother-of-the-bride on top of everything—yeah no freaking way could I be responsible for any other teensy thing. She is way together and this happened weeks before crunch time—so all I had to do was run interference on whatever happened that day. My brother came in that day & he stayed with us—he tried to talk to me but gave up—I was in hyper-focus and he was scared of me hahahahaha. Now on a side note, over dinner at Outback after a recent cake delivery, my husband said carefully,” You are a real nice person except when you are doing a cake, you are mean.” I was quiet for a minute and said calmly, “Are you bleeding anywhere, do you have chunks of bald spots where hair has been ripped out of your head, do you currently have any untreated broken bones??? If you can answer no to two out of three of those questions, then you are a indeed lucky man.” Bwwoooahahahahahaha. Ok –I could have had the chocolate curls done ahead of time—yeah I really should have had them done ahead of time. But you gotta do the strawberries at the last possible minute…so why melt the chocolate until you need it—so if I had done the curls in advance that could have bought me few more minutes on the day of too. But back to the bride—she did expect me to come down day before & be there to engineer the decorating of the tables. I really needed that time but shoot, this is my one chance to be mother of the bride. So I go do that—she had oodles of help I only needed to be there a few minutes. But it did break my rthym. Then we had the rehearsal & dinner—legendary pizza to die for—remember I’ve been on Southbeach since January. So day of, I’m up & running at 5:30 and I worked in hyper focus until we left to deliver at like around FIVE OCLOCK THE WEDDING WAS SIX THIRTY OH MY GAWD. CRUNCH TIME IS FAST BECOMING CRASH AND BURN TIME. Because I had to get dressed before we left too. The venue is seven miles from the house—that was totally on purpose. But because of storage issues, hey you can’t leave whipped cream filled cake and cheesecake sitting out overnight y’know. I had to ice last minute because I didn’t want my icing to catch all manner of refrigerator smell—ain’t no way to fit all those boxed cakes in the friges—even unboxed they wouldn’t all fit. Besides, Thursday the father–of-the-bride aka bar-b-q-boy is smoking not one but two Boston butts—hahahhaha who doesn’t love a nice slice of white Grand Marnier strawberry bar-b-q smoked flavor cake---but hey we also got tons of out of town guests too—the bar-b-q came in handy on Sunday. No no no the venue was supposed to have their frige cleaned out & open for me—so I could deliver early—hahahahayeahthatdidn’thappen –but I knew not to count on it either. Oh yeah, I had previously run out of yellow wrapping paper and had to go to the store before the rehearsal dinner and get it—so I was crazy nuts but that’s when I got the bright idea to go ahead and use the lights all over everywhere and took a bunch of time designing and wrapping the separations. I mean it’s not because I asked my husband to get the batteries the week before and I only got them the night before…hmmm...not like I couldn’t go get batteries myself…(hysterical laughter ensues…) But no problem icing last minute because hey no piping –a big fat juicy border on the groom's cake took all of two minutes—just because I had to make & reload the bags a couple times. Oh my soul, my blood pressure is pounding just thinking about all this—ha!!! Whooo hoooo. RadEmCowboy!!!!! So where was I, umm, no eye liner-later—oh yeah, my husband was great—he knows how to go fire up the air conditioners in the cars and put a blanket in the back seat of my car to level it so the cakes ride level—he’s got a wagon thank God--I had the chocolate curls & strawberries packed into a newspaper covered half sheet box with a frozen freezer pack inside so I don’t have chocolate puddles when I get there. So I’m slapping boxes together left & right—being sure to get the cakes in faster than the cat can crawl inside—he loves boxes. So (takes big deep breath) we all survived—the bride was the requisite radiant—she really was--the wedding was a beautiful celebration, the cake was awesome, it didn’t fall over—it didn’t taste like bar-b-q—my husband has all his hair, well most of it—I didn’t bite off my fingernails mostly because there was no time to do so. J I’ll leave out the part where he checks his suit the day before & we notice the moth holes hahahahahyeahnotfunnyonceagain. lol So people who fire up their ovens the day before a wedding are so way totally screwed. I didn’t get my eye-liner on, I didn’t get the coffee cakes baked for the fruit baskets for the hotel rooms of the out of towners, but then again I didn’t get the fruit baskets delivered to the hotel rooms of out of towners either so they never noticed the absence of coffee cake -lol. So how long did it take??? Way too long but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way—it was a thrill and a joy and now a treasured memory--but again I had thirty years to try to figure it all out. Shoot, now I wanna go make some more of that chocolate icing…grab a spoon…

Ambyre, Hey. I just finished a demo thread on my daughter's wedding cake and I actually was kinda 'speaking' to you in the back of my mind and to anyone else wanting to to do their own cake from a home environment. I did my own cake 26 years ago--I didn't try to outdo myself--it was frozen several days in advance. But actually I baked it at the bakery where I worked and was boxed & kept frozen in a lovely big walk-in. If you can manipulate your space well enough to do it in advance and just take it out at the appointed time to deliver in boxes already made & waiting (that no cats have played in :) or if it is to be served there where it was stored all the better. But frozen cake tends to sweat if brought right out to room temperature, sometimes you might want to refrigerate in between. Just all depends on a lotta' variables. If we had done the catering for her wedding we would have purchased a chest freezer and a big sliding door frige too. Something like this might be a consideration for you. Little chest freezers are not super expensive and you can sure put it to good use afterwards--or sell it. Buy a used one maybe. All the logistics are more important than actual baking--baking is high on the list but if you bake the day before you're way wrong--if you bake in advance and have improper storage you're wrong. It's a giant perishable 3-d chess game that's gotta taste & look good too. What size cakes are you thinking about??? When you nail that down, you can get your stand and boxes going--when you get your boxes going you can determine where they will fit so you can store the cake. Because you are doing the food too--you're gonna' need to juggle your space a lot. Those little screw top dowel are awesome though--you just dial them up or down so they are all the same height--you can get them at a cake store. They are apparently called cake jacks, scroll down to the 4th & 5th products. Or like floating stands would be perfect like these. No dowel at all. Or or or, you could take anything and make a floating stand like this one I mean I have two yards of fabric there covering some soup cans, some cake dummies and some upside down cake pans to arrange the crystal candles in a spiral effect. If you made a similar display--you could bake & ice your cake/s and just arrange them on a pretty bunch of fabric at differing heights for a drop dead gorgeous effect--before you even pipe the first shell or need to pipe any. Put some candles or mini vases of flowers at different heights, maybe. Set it up in advance so you know how you want it and you got it. No dowel either.' And I'll tell yah--I usually get the crepe backed satin for stuff like this--I don't know $5 $6 a yard--this was $2.99 a yard at Hobby Lobby--every bit as pretty as crepe backed satin. And you can purchase beautiful gum paste flowers too--if you take spoofle dust* and simply dust the flowers they take on new life. Spoofle dust* is my collective term for all dusts like luster dust that's metallic, petal dust is like a matte dust, use either one of those that come in a variety of colors then dust over that with super pearl dust for a beautiful pearly finish. Just some cake thoughts for you. Keep us posted!! Best wishes!!!