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Hi
I posted this question earlier but perhaps didn’t submit it properly. Anhow I made a large fruit cake recently (base tier of daughter’s wedding cake) and although it appears to have turned out very well it’s slightly short of 3inches deep. This recipe normally produces a slightly taller cake so don’t know what could have happened. The other 3 tiers are going to be extended chocolate/madeira etc approx 4-5 inches tall. I was initially concerned that a standard size base fruit tier would look out of keeping given the others are all going to be taller. Do you think if I make another fruit cake, same size as currant one (forgive the pun) and marzipan both these fruit cakes separately then stack one on top of the other and ice as one that this would be better than just having the slightly shallow base tier. I would of course dowel the base cake and put a silver card on base of next fruit cake. I have never made an extended fruit tier before so hope this would work. I would ask the caterer to just cut the bottom fruit tier and could keep the one on top as a potential future christening cake. Any help/ideas would be gratefully received thanks. xx

Hi bellescakes

Some people do have a shallow base tier stacked with taller cakes. Personally I think they look very attractive and not at all out of keeping, although perhaps not to everyones tastes.
If you stack together two iced cakes of the same size there will be a ridge where they join. What you could do is extend the tier by dowelling together two uniced cake. The ridge can be plugged in by attaching a long marizpan sausage the diametre of the cake along the join. Smooth the marzipan with your fingers and cake smoothers so it becomes flush with the cakes melding them together as one. Once you cover with with marzipan and icing the cakes should look like one deep cake. Another way to get a deeper cake without having to bake more is to use a shallow dummy under your real cake. The real cake will have to sit on it’s own card, do the same with the plugging as above, then marzipan and ice the cakes together as one.
I hope this all makes sense! I’m sure other members will give their opinions too.

HI madeitwithlove

Thanks so much for getting back so me so promptly as usual. Well I do at least have some options here. The other option of course would be to bake another cake and if that turns out deeper than the first one then I could just use that one instead, and not bother stacking two together or having to use a dummy as I am not sure I’d make a perfect job of this. I suppose then I could always just keep the original fruit cake or freeze it. Would I need to let it mature first? Decisions decisions! I am a bit annoyed as I really was pleased to have made the fruit cake last week in that I thought well that’s one big thing done. I have just thought of something else to raise height of the fruit cake. I could stick 2x11inch cake drums together (same size as cake) and then take the marzipan down to cover the fused drums and do the same with the sugarpast if you see what I mean. Do you think this would be a good idea? The base cake would then be ready to go on to the 14inch iced drum bit would be a little taller than in it’s currant state. Thanks xx

Bake another cake by all means and see whether it comes out deeper than your present one. If it doesn’t it won’t be wasted. You could freeze it if surplus to requirements as soon as it cools down without the need of maturing. Fusing cake drums together would also work, I don’t know why I left that suggestion out since I do it such a lot myself! plus it would be the easier option. Will that give you the desired height? If it does, you’d be ready to go with the base cake. I know just how annoying this must be for you, especially since it’s for such a special event. It will all turn out good, you wait and see, everyone will love the cake. x

I too, like to see the bottom tier not quite as deep.

Hi Sharon54

Thanks very much, maeitwithlove’s and your response helps me to fell reassured. I guess I just need to relax about this and then perhaps things will work out better.

xx