The finished cake
 

This is the way I did the cake- its probably not the most efficient or technically correct way but it worked!

I’m going to try & write this as if for a complete beginner (which I was at the start!) so forgive me if I over-elaborate on the details.
Personally, I always like to have as much detail as possible about how other people did things but I apologize if I irritate anyone by pointing out the absolutely obvious all the time! & a lot of these details seem blindingly obvious to me now, but they didn’t before I started on this project!
 
If there's any questions/comments/criticisms please let me have them!
 
1 started with 6 round, very rich fruit cakes
 
2 of 12"
2 of 9"
2 of 5"


bottom tier
Stuck the 12" cakes together with layer of marzipan or   sugar paste (coated each side with apricot glaze)


I measured up 4" on one side of cake & put in marker pin
 
I measured up 3" on opposite side of cake & put in marker pin
 
Also put marker pins in half way round between these pins on either side of cake at about 3 1/2" from bottom
 
 
Cut 2 strips of greaseproof paper about 4" wide 1/2 the circumference of the cake long. 
Folded these lengthwise to give 2" wide strip with a good, straight folded edge
 
 & pinned them to cake, lining up the folded edge just under the marker pins


the first cut
 
Then cut the top off, using the edge of the paper as guide, & using the longest, sharpest knife we had. It wasn’t long enough to do it in one cut- I had to cut in from both sides (but I suspect that’s a better way of doing it anyway)


Turn over
 
I put another plastic board on top to make it easier to turn over. There was a lot of turning cakes over involved in this!


Cake board added
 
Cake now turned upside down
 
I put 10" cardboard cake board on bottom using watered down s/paste to "glue" it on


sloped sides
 
I cut down from edges of cake board to bottom edge of cake, all round cake, using same sharp knife



upside up
 
Turned cake over again (& admired it for a bit!)


Rounded edge
 
 
I rounded the top edge using an electric carving knife. I find you can carve fruit cakes with surprising accuracy using one of these. You don’t have to apply any pressure or movement to the knife so it doesn’t collapse/distort the cake (you probably all know this already!)

Plugged holes
 
filled the biggest surface holes with marzipan or s/paste


marzipan
 
Covered cake with marzipan , about 1/4" thick. Coated cake first with apricot glaze to stick  marzipan. I rolled out about 2 1/4 kilo of marzipan & was left with about 1 1/4k afterwards
 
used plastic smoother (which I’d never even heard of till i started on this project!) to smooth it out
 
my practice cake I marzipan with it sitting straight on a plastic board, but I couldn’t get a very good edge round bottom of cake that way, so all the "real things" I raised up on a pan as in photo, so I could smooth all way down side & make horizontal cut  round bottom of cake
 
Left this to "skin over" for at least a day


middle tier
 
 
As with bottom tier
 
2 9" cakes on top of each other
 
Cut top so it sloped from 5" high on one side to 4" high on other side
 
Turned upside down as in picture.


Cutting middle tier
 
 
Pinned paper guide so it was 5" high on tall side of cake & 3" high on other side (ie I cut a sloping slice off both top & bottom of this tier- to end up with a wedge-shaped cake which sloped from 5" to 3")


cake board on mid tier
 
 
 
I turned cake upside down & "glued” (watered down s/paste) 7" cake board on bottom of mid tier. The board had about a 1 1/4" hole in the middle
 
in the UK the cake boards are made of cardboard & covered on top side only with aluminum foil- I needed  a board which would allow a UK plastic dowel rod (wooden ones are banned in the UK!) to pass through the center, like a big nail hammered in from top to bottom of cake
 
there's no chance of the dowel piercing its own hole in a cardboard board, & I didn’t fancy cutting a hole in the cake board & then burying it between 2 tiers of cake (thought it might go soggy & yucky!), so I cut myself a plastic board out of a cheap food chopping board, & cut a hole in the middle
 
 
I then sloped the edges of cake, as with bottom tier, sloping from edge of cake board to bottom edge of cake


mid tier cut
 
I turned cake over again & rounded edges
 
Then marzipan it
 

Top tier
 
 
Similar procedure but slightly different order (this way gave better slopes to cake sides)
 
2 of 5" cakes on top of each other
 
Cut slope off so it measured 4 1/4" on one side & 3 1/4" on opposite.
 
Without turning cake over i stuck a 4" plastic cake board with a 1" hole in mid (sawn from chopping board as before!) onto the cake surface that I’d just cut/sloped
 
I then sloped the sides of the cake, cutting down from the edge of the cake board to the bottom edge of the cake, as before
 
then turned cake over, so it was now sitting on the plastic cake board, & cut another wedge off the top of cake, so that it measured 4 1/4" high on one side & 2 1/4" high on other side.


Top tier budged
 
 
I rounded the edge as with other tiers, but stupidly cut too much off so I had to build it up a bit with s/paste!


bottom tier s/pasted
 
 
Covered in s/paste about 1/4" thick. I didn’t worry too much about smoothing the central part of the top coat the mid tier is goanna cover that
 
I scratched a 7" circle, centrally, in the s/paste on top of the cake to mark where the mid tier was going to sit, & then inserted 4 plastic dowel rods evenly spaced within the scratched circle. The dowels were 1/4" thick, & pushed down vertically into the cake till they were standing on the board at the bottom. I cut them off flush with the top of the cake using (clean!) garden scatters.
 
These dowel rods are to support the weight of the cake above. I forgot to take pictures of them though, I’m afraid!


mid tier s/pasted
 
I covered all 3 tiers individually, first in marzipan. Then in s/paste, so I had 3 separate, finished cakes ready to assemble
 
I rolled out about 2kg of paste for the mid tier, & had 1kg left over after covering
As with bottom tier I inserted dowels. Only 3 this time (not so much room!) & the scratched circle was 4" diameter.


Top tier s/pasted
 
 
I made a hole in the centre of top where the final dowel would go, across I didn’t know if the dowel would crack the s/paste once it had hardened
 
 
I left all three cakes & s/pasted board to harden for about a week


footprints
 
I put a covering of 1/4" thick s/paste on the top of a 15" (by 1/2" thick) UK  cake board & then made the rabbit's footprints (using a "tool" I made from some scrap metal).


Rabbit footprint tool
 
 
I soldered 4 bits of scrap silver together & bent them till they made the right pattern. I got a print out of a cottontail's footprints from the internet! There is absolutely nothing you can't find on the web!!


Assembly
 
 
I let the board & cakes harden for about a week
 
to assemble I scratched a 10" circle centrally on the iced cake board, spread some watered down s/paste within the circle & bedded the bottom tier in it
 
Then spread watered s/paste within the scratched circle on the top surface of bottom tier & bedded the mid tier in that. You only get one go at positioning it correctly, & I did in fact, accidentally,  put this one about 1/2" off center- but with a "wonkey" cake that sort of thing doesn’t show, fortunately!!
 
the watered down s/paste had to be as thick as possible, so as to provide a good "bed" for the cake but not too allow it to slide off. on my practice version I mixed it too sloppy, and the top tier started to (very slowly) slide down the slope on the mid tier- I had to quickly "nail" in the central dowel to hold it in position till the paste dried! There was no sign of slipping with the final cake though!
 
 
when I’d got all 3 tiers on top of each other i pushed a 12" dowel down thru the center of the whole cake , to " nail" them all together. This dowel, of course, has to pass thru the central holes in the middle & top cake boards (which thankfully it did- a bit of prayer involved there!)
 
on my practice version I recessed the top of the dowel rod about 1/4" - 3/8" to allow room for a plug of paste, but the cake "settled"  a fair amount and the dowel pushed the s/paste plug back out (after a few weeks). So on the real thing i omitted the plug of paste till the
last minute (in the end I didn’t actually put one in center I knew the boy & girl figures would cover the hole!)

Beads, lettering, flowers
 
 
Beads- I used the CEL bead maker with ordinary sugarpaste, following their instructions- it worked brilliantly! Glued them on with edible glue
 
 
Lettering- I used the FMM script cutters ("tappets"). You roll out flowerpaste (i used squire's kitchen) very thin, press the cutter into it, then tap the cutter on the table & the letter (you hope!) drops out. then paint back of letter with water & stick on cake
 
 
Flowers- I used plastic 5-petal cutters & followed the instructions supplied with them. Different sized cutters gave me different sized roses. Used Bordeaux colored flower paste, & had intended to dust with burgundy dust & steam to fix colour, but my first efforts at steaming were such a disaster (mainly I think cause I used marzipan for the roses!) that I chickened out & left them un-dusted!


Boy and Girl


Groom Man and Bridesmaids Cakes


Rabbit