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Ceramic Wedding Cake Stand


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My son and his fiance are getting married in January and will have a Star Wars themed wedding.  My future DIL wants a traditional 3 tier cake but with a twist using Star Wars somehow.  She pointed out plenty of cakes where people have used a Death Star on top of the cake which is not to my taste design wise (unbalanced, color scheme, etc).  I thought I might attempt to make a cake stand instead which makes it look like it's rising out of the table.  Attached is a very crude copy/paste of what I'm thinking.  A wedding cake of this size can weigh 30-40 lbs once decorated so want to make sure I'm thinking of good weight distribution as well as design balance.

 

The death star would basically be half a round sphere, flattened on the top to attach to bottom of the cake platter.  The bottom layer of the cake will be 14" diameter so the cake platter will be a minimum of 16" and maybe 18" if they decide to decorate down onto the platter itself.  The base of the sphere will be 2" less than whatever diameter platter we end up with.  That gives me the most weight distribution.  One thing I'm worried about is making it too tall and raising the center of gravity even more ... it might end up being less than half a sphere in height to counteract this.

 

The interior of the sphere would be hollow unless you guys think I need to build in cross bracing.

 

Any and all thoughts welcome!  BTW I'm starting now so that if it doesn't work out we can go to plan B!

post-67178-0-51304800-1443649341_thumb.jpg

post-67178-0-51304800-1443649341_thumb.jpg

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The interior of the sphere would be hollow unless you guys think I need to build in cross bracing.

 

It might be worth thinking about putting some ballast in the sphere to reduce the top-heaviness of

the whole thing. Although it would add to the weight on the table.

 

... and how big are the sideways forces when cutting the cake?

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The interior of the sphere would be hollow unless you guys think I need to build in cross bracing.

 

It might be worth thinking about putting some ballast in the sphere to reduce the top-heaviness of

the whole thing. Although it would add to the weight on the table.

 

... and how big are the sideways forces when cutting the cake?

 

 

Peter ... we checked and the venue has a special cake table that has additional bracing to support even bigger cakes than this.  Traditionally you actually take the layers apart when you start cutting.  Each layer will be on it's own cardboard or styrofoam round and can be lifted off.  I'm mainly just wanting it to survive being put together and making it through pics.  The upside is they will have a big cake plate for after the wedding that they can keep.

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Death Star might not be a great message to send at a wedding? : - )

 

On a more serious note I worry about the circle shape supporting a flat tray that will wobble when cut into. I know the top will be flat but the sides still will be round.

I would be inclined to go with a sturdier vehicle myself.

 

:)

 

In my head ... the majority of the top of the sphere will be in contact with the platter.  So the sides would be more of a slight curve and the weight of the cake would be centered over the sphere rather than hanging out past it.

 

I'm not a big Star Wars fan myself ... is that pic from one of the movies?

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Take a page from the construction of the cake itself and put a post down the center of the Death Star to support the weight. Make it a cylinder and you get the best support/weight ratio. If you make the top of the post stick up from the stand you can attach a bolt to it, and the bottom of the cake plate can have a nut attached so they are screwed together. I suppose a hole in the top, and some regular pipe fittings from Home Depot would work as well. (Pipe of correct length, threaded on both ends with flange on the bottom, attach other flange to cake board.)

This is a nifty idea!

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Death Star might not be a great message to send at a wedding? : - )

On a more serious note I worry about the circle shape supporting a flat tray that will wobble when cut into. I know the top will be flat but the sides still will be round.

I would be inclined to go with a sturdier vehicle myself.

 

 

:)

 

In my head ... the majority of the top of the sphere will be in contact with the platter.  So the sides would be more of a slight curve and the weight of the cake would be centered over the sphere rather than hanging out past it.

 

I'm not a big Star Wars fan myself ... is that pic from one of the movies?

Yes. That is from the very first movie ... It's the vehicle where they pick the two robots from.

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Take a page from the construction of the cake itself and put a post down the center of the Death Star to support the weight. Make it a cylinder and you get the best support/weight ratio. If you make the top of the post stick up from the stand you can attach a bolt to it, and the bottom of the cake plate can have a nut attached so they are screwed together. I suppose a hole in the top, and some regular pipe fittings from Home Depot would work as well. (Pipe of correct length, threaded on both ends with flange on the bottom, attach other flange to cake board.)

This is a nifty idea!

 

Thanks Becky!  I like the cyclinder brace idea much better than the "wall" cross bracing I was thinking of.  As to pipe fittings ... I love building things but in this case I'm thinking that the weight of the cake would cause problems because all the weight would be centered on the pipe flange which would be of limited diameter.  It might even cause the platter to crack/break at the point of the flange.  To expand on your cylinder idea it could actually be a series of nested cylinders so that the weight is distributed across the whole plus it would have the advantage of a consistent drying since the walls of the cylinders, sphere and cake platter would be of a consistent thickness and spaced apart for air flow.

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how about the  millennium falcon for a cake plate.  or an r2d2 holding the cake?   could have orbiting cupcakes.   or lightsabers surrounding the cake?   d

 

That's the one that's flat and kind of horseshoe shaped right?  I suggested that one but she wants the death star.

 

I love the orbiting cupcakes idea!  Maybe we can work that into the groom's cake.  

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My big worry about this piece is not necessarily it being able to hold the cake, but simply getting it made successfully. If the final size is to be 16" diameter, then the wet piece will need to be around 18", depending on what type of clay you use. That's a very large piece. What construction methods are you planning to use? What clay body?

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I handbuild with a cone 6 stoneware 12% shrinkage from Stone Mountain Clay.  I've successfully made some large platters/footed trays with slump/hump molds depending on the piece.  I understand there's a lot more "construction" to this which is why I'm starting now in case of disaster.  I've got a large damp box that I plan to put the constructed piece in for a couple of days to make sure that the moisture equalizes then slow, slow dry.  Do you have any additional suggestions on construction?

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Are you planning to coil build?

 

The biggest issue is going to be getting the interior structure and outer skin to jive. Anyone who's tried to make a divided tray knows what I'm talking about. The key will be joining the interior and exterior elements at the same moisture level.

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No I haven't coil built anything since my first class.  

 

I thought I would roll all my slabs at once and keep them in the damp box as construction proceeds.  And thinking rather than the base being a single slab that I try to mush over a round mold with all it's resulting folds and darts, that the curved sides would be a cylinder that sloped in slightly at the top then the support structure cylinders nested with a flat roof attached to all.  If I can keep a consistent height to all the support cylinders and they not extend beyond the flat roof then it will be easier to join.

 

I may build a smaller scale version to test all this out and get the construction methods down.

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The death star has "panels" applied to the outer surface of the sphere. They kind of look like circuit boards.

 

What would you think about decorating the sides of the cake with these panels instead of traditional piping, making the cake "Star Wars-like."

 

Jed

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I found out this afternoon that she is working on a cake design (with my daughter who worked in a bakery doing specialty cakes) that is a half and half ... front half is traditional, back half is themed and includes some miniature ship replicas (including the millenium falcon!) flying around the sides.  The death star may get scaled down and used for the groom's cake.  I tend to err on the side of less is more so it may get eliminated altogether.

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