Demo: Mad Hatter or slanted cake

[John DePaula]

Several years ago, I attended a wedding and the grooms chose a style of cake that I'd never seen before; it just blew me away:

Perhaps that was an original Polly Schoonmaker cake? She's based in Oregon you know.

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Wedding was in Seattle and I think it was someone local who made the cake. Great work, eh?

[Laura Michelle]

I found Annie's (chefpeon's) description of how to create the polly cake intriguing. I have been mulling it over in my head the past couple of days and wanted to ask a few questions?

First, do you think this could be done with buttercream icing and not the fondant overlay? Especially if the cake sides were not sloped inward and relied on positioning each tier on top of a slanted top to create the slanted sides look. I have a bride who would like me to do this in buttercream only.

Also, I was wondering if you cover your cardboards to protect them from grease deteriorating them? Or do you simply use the wax covered boards?

On a three tiered cake, would you dowel the middle tier with the bubble tea straws before placing the tier on the cake or after? I was wondering if placing them in the cake straight up and down prior would make the support slanted once one tier is placed on another and the cake is nolonger resting on a flat surface.

Does the chocolate between layers create any difficulty when disassembling the cake at the reception? Or do you recommend cutting while the cake is still assembled and starting from the top?

If I were to do a 6-9-12 round polly cake, about how many bubble straws would you recommend in the 9" and 12" rounds for support?

Sorry for so many questions, this polly styled cake has been on my brain for weeks and your directions are so detailed I am actually getting excited about doing this cake!

Thank you!