"Tangled" Tower Cake

The Tangled tower birthday cake is my tallest cake yet, and provided me with more than a little bit of stress. The column was the cake part, and was nine layers of 6" red velvet cakes. I had never stacked so many small cakes on top of each other so I really didn't know how it would work. Just to experiment after baking, I decided to stack all nine cakes just to see how unstable they were. Well...they would not stand, forget about placing the house on top. With the deadline approaching, I was pretty nervous. I thought I must be insane because the client wasn't expecting a cake quite this elaborate, but I thought this was a great idea. I figured if I really had to, I would bake some new 8" cakes and replace some of the 6" layers with them, but obviously the effect I was looking for would have been totally lost.
Fortunately, after leveling, icing, covering in fondant, and doweling, the cake was pretty sturdy! Once I had that all set I was able to relax a little and enjoy the decorating.
Everything on the cake is edible minus the figures, as they were requested by the client. It took over 2.5 boxes of rice krispies and 25 cups of mini marshmallows. Kinda crazy, but so much more fun to make the entire thing edible.
The thing I love most about this cake is the color from edible food paints and dusts. It just goes to show how essential it is to be well stocked in a variety of colors, because you never know what might come in handy. With my budget I can't afford to have all the colors I want on hand, but I think it's time to expand my collection!