Delivering a 5 tier cake

Hi Julia ,
Here is what I normally do for my cakes more than 3 tiers .. Always centre dowel which is a rod wooden or metal whatever is available attached to the main board on which ur cake Wud be stacked . Then each layer is slided through the dowel .. Also each tier is also doweled and each cake has a cake board of its respected size . Between each board and the cake tier apply ganache or royal icing so it does not slide off . Hope this helps .

Thank you so much for your reply! I was thinking a central dowel and wooden boards with the holes, and pray it gets there in one piece!! Xxx

Yes wooden boards with holes will make ur structure more sturdy and travel will be very safe .. It takes care of my cake with the bumpy roads that we hv here so am sure will take care on the smooth ride too :) . Good luck !

We also have terrible bumpy roads here, from my house in the mountains to the hotel down by the sea. Thank you for your help and for easing my mind a bit xxx

I never did something like that, but maybe you can fix the center dowel somehow to the bottom and the top of your box like they do it with the “Cake Safe”. That would be fine for the bumpy roads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WCajrmsQQ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75tYpaEqMRc

Alternatively, you could do what I did for my son’s wedding… transported tiers separately, and wired the flowers together beforehand. I did my flowers in 2 sprays… one to cover the top tier, then a separate trail to go down the cake. I only had to add in a few extras on the day.
I had to go over very rough, gravel road, terrain also. I put cotton wool between the sugar flowers, to protect during transport… and removed with tweezers after arrival.
http://cakesdecor.com/cakes/219240-for-love-of-a-son

I never transport a fully assembled cake. I’m too scared of the risks (learnt the hard way in my early days of decorating) … so I organise to get there super early and take my time assembling on site if possible. (This might not be what you want to do though, reading your write up Julia, but I’m paranoid hahaha so I do) the most I will do is 2 tiers together so for 5 tiers, I may do 2 tiers, 2 tiers then one tier… all separately boxed and carefully packed into the car… if flowers are involved, I assemble them on site, to minimise risk of breakage. I pre pack them carefully with them well fixed into a dummy cake, then i use soft baby tissues to wrap around each sugar flower as light, soft and hold the flowers gently with no rattling around over bumps etc. These are boxed as well, ensuring space around where petals are.
I also have all the cakes pre-dowelled so ready to stack on site.
i also place a non-stick mat under each cake in its box to ensure no sliding.

Check out Cake Safe! They are on facebook, as well as, the web!

Hi Julia,if you use Facebook,there’s a page(and product) called Sturdy Cake Stackers,which should solve your problem. The kit comes with a central plastic dowel and pre-drilled boards,etc.There’s an online video to show you how to use it and I’m sure they could post to Cyprus. I picked up a kit at Cake International last November for a 3 tier cake that I’m doing in June this year. Hope that helps you.x

I always deliver stacked if I can as I hate being watched whilst I work and there’s always someone at the venue hanging around… I would follow the advice of using a central dowel. I delivered this 4 tier into central London (60 miles) stacked (there was no other way due to the design) and we all arrived unscathed (although I think I aged a little!). Use plenty of dowels and thick royal icing between the tiers to really stick them together and give it at least 24 hours to set fully.