In the last few years, some good intended advice in several bridal magazines was to get your cake in dummy (fake/foam) tiers, in order to save money. As the advice was obviously given by people that don’t have experience in making cakes, here are 6 reasons why this is a myth and why dummy tiers are not actually a great idea.
1. Dummy tiers don’t actually save you money
It actually does sound like it might be cheaper to have a cake made out a foam, but the price of the foam is not that cheap. When looking for certain sizes as far as both diameter and height, the foam is not very cheap, and because it is bulky, when ordered online, shipping costs are quite pricey.
Also, many times the high price of a wedding cake comes from the decorating time, which is not erased. The cake still have to be decorated, which equals time, which equals money.
Lastly, you will still have to get cake to serve your guests, which costs money, and in the end you will end up spending more money than with a real cake.
2. Dummy tiers are very hard to work with
If you ever tried to cover and decorate a dummy cake, you know what I mean.
3. Dummy tiers are not environmentally friendly
The foam doesn’t decompose, and if you are a bride that cares about the environment, you don’t want to use that.
4. It makes it very difficult to attach flowers
While in a real cake, flower stems enter relatively easy (I don’t recommend adding the flowers yourself), in a foam tier, you will need wires and/or skewers, and knowledge how to attach it to the flowers.
5. Dummy tiers bring unexpected issues, like structure and color
The foam is still light and it can be crushed under heavy top tiers, and the cake will be difficult to move: something heavy on top of something light, you get the idea.
The fondant is kept slightly moist when added on a real cake, which gives it vibrancy, while on a foam tier, it dries and becomes dull.
6. Who wants a fake cake anyway?
Your wedding will be one of the most unique and important days in your life, and I am sure you don’t want anything fake about it. Why would you miss out on delicious cake for you and your guests?
What if you want a tall statement making cake, then? There are many ways to do that, and we would be happy to help designing a stunning cake for you, that you and your guests will remember for years to come.
Here at Dulcerella we use foam for display cakes only, with the sole purpose of having that cake for months on display without going bad, and to reuse the foam for new designs.