Stacking ring cake advice

[TickledOnion]

I want to make a cake like this for DD2's 1st birthday stacking ring cake

I've never made a stacked cake before. Would it need some kind of support to stop it collapsing?

Also how do I make the cakes look ring shaped instead of disc shaped? I can carve the cakes to roughly the right shape but how do I get the fondant to go round the bottom of the cakes.

TIA

I would think a lightish sponge should be self supporting?

My first thought was to look for specialist shaped rings - sponge flan rings was what I was thinking along the lines of. Have had a little google but no luck...

You need cards under each cake and dowelling rods to support the weight. If you use cards that are each a bit smalle than the cakes you make you could carve it into the right shape then the fondant should follow the shape of the cake pretty easily. You could leave a tiny bit extra round the edges and then raise the cake up and tuck the extra fondant under the card.

You definately need card under each one and dowels as wem says.

Sponge is not self supporting at all. It will all sink and collapse.

I bow to the experts, as mine was pure guesswork

Thanks for the advice. Do I have to use a special kind of card?

Also I'm wondering what size cakes to make. It has to serve 20 people. I was thinking of 5 layers of 20cm, 18, 16, 14 and 12. Or 20cm, 17.5, 15, 12.5 and 10?

You need cake cards. There are lots of places online you can buy them, or if you have a cake decorating shop anywhere local to you. I'd say you need a bigger difference in the size of your cakes than just 2cm. That would leave just a 1cm difference round the edge, iyswim.