Transporting small but tall cake to client

[Jess Bauer]

Hello! I am brand new to baking cakes by commission, and will be making a 6" round, 3-layer seminaked cake for a client in a couple of weeks. With the fresh flower topping, it will be around 9" tall. Does anyone have any advice on the best way for me to box it in a somewhat professional-looking manner?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hello! I am brand new to baking cakes by commission, and will be making a 6" round, 3-layer seminaked cake for a client in a couple of weeks. With the fresh flower topping, it will be around 9" tall. Does anyone have any advice on the best way for me to box it in a somewhat professional-looking manner?

Welcome to the forum. Oh dear, if I read this correctly you are creating a 6’ x 9” single tier cake using 3 cake layers. Even if the flowers make up 2" or so of the total height, that still too tall for a single tier. A single tier that narrow is at great risk of toppling over. A barrel cake is actually an optical illusion. It is two shorter tiers stacked to look like a single tier.

You have the added problem of loss of stability with a naked cake. Buttercream and fondant provide stability to hold the layers together. When the buttercream and fondant is eliminated in a naked cake, you lose all that stability. So the cake layers are at risk of shifting.

To be frank, boxing it is not your issue; your issue is getting the cake there with the layers shifting and/or the cake toppling over. Then there's the challenge of slicing a single tier that tall and narrow.

 

[Jess Bauer]

Thank you for your quick reply. OK, I am definitely going to do a test run for this cake – thank you so much for calling these issues to my attention! If it isn’t stable, I might try using a dowel. In the case that it does work, do you or does anyone else have tips on transportation?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thank you for your quick reply. OK, I am definitely going to do a test run for this cake – thank you so much for calling these issues to my attention! If it isn’t stable, I might try using a dowel. In the case that it does work, do you or does anyone else have tips on transportation?

Just remember, anything you put in a cake that is non-edible needs to be food safe and you need to let those cutting and serving the cake know exactly what you put in the cake and where it's located to ensure it's safely removed before serving. Even though its only 6", given the height you will definitely need to dowel. And if you can assemble on site, all the better.

This thread has info on transporting a cake and how to make a box.

A naked cake has about 4 hours of life before it dries out. Just like unwrapped bread, it will go stale when exposed to air. So likes like pound cake work better than cakes like a sponge that are dry by nature. If its a dry type of cake, simple syrup will help keep the cake moist.

Good Luck!

https://www.baking-forums.com/threads/first-time-wedding-cake.4961/