I am doing my sister's wedding cake for this Saturday (the 13th) and need advices... she wanted 3 tiers... all white... but wanted real red roses in between the tiers... 2 questions... how many red roses each tiers (and on top of the cake too)? And do I "stick" the red roses stem in the cake or do I need to put a space between the cakes? Originally I was gonna do the stacked cakes.

Your advices would be great.

the cakes are in 6, 10, and 12 sizes

I would leave a space... and make sure to get organic roses that have no pesticides!

I would get separator plates that are attached by one center pillar, then you can cut some wax paper for the tops of each cake and just lay the roses in there how you want without worries of them touching the cake itself. Or you could use a piece of foam inbetween the layers and stick the rose stems into the foam and use wax paper for the top tier

You're going to want space between the tiers, check out this wilton page on various tiered construction. I would think something with pillars (I like push-in) or the "tailored tiers" or globe pillars.

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/tiered-cakes/

You wouldn't want to stick the rose stems in the cake, pesticides, etc. If you did insert a fresh flower, I would put the stem in a straw and push in that way.

As for the number of roses, check out Earlene's cake chart. The column on pan circumference should help you determine how many roses you would need, depending on the size of the roses. Good luck!


http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm

It is going to be very hard to determine how many flowers you will need because it will depend on how big the flowers are and how open they are.
Those are rather small tiers so I would guess somewhere about 4-5 dozen....about 18-20 for the 12"; maybe 12-15 for the next; and 6 or so for the top......again, it does depend on the size of the flower.

The sizes of the cake is 6, 10 and 12... I was gonna use those regular size roses (not the sweetheart roses) so it will be "big" enough... and that I plan to trim the stem shorter so it can "hide" between the tiers. I guess I will have to shop around to look for the pillars that are no more than 1 inch high. Got any suggestion? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Look for what they call "hidden pillars" They're a straight white pillar that's 6" tall and attach to Wilton separator plates. They come in a package of 4 so you'd need 2 pkgs. They go right down into the tier and if your tier is 4" high, then you will have a 2" space between tiers which is perfect for putting flowers between.

I havent had much luck finding the 6" inch pillars... any other advices? Also wondering what is a nice base board I can use to place the cake on ... I wanted the base to look nice... obviously I cannot shell out $$$ on a fancy plate to put the cake on... any suggestions? I am sweating but not stressing out on the cake.
More advices and encouragments is what I would need to feel at ease...

I have a big cut-glass cake stand. I mask off the lip of the plate, then spray paint the underside ONLY in whatever color scheme I am working with. Remove the masking tape, and voila, coordinated cake stand with no paint touching the cake. Afterward, remove the spray paint by covering it with oven cleaner, then toss the cake stand in the dishwasher.

Look in my photos. I just did a wedding cake that was 10" and 8" square with roses between. I couldn't find the 6" pillars, so I used a sharp knife and cut down the 8" pillars. Easy. I used between 3 and 5 roses on each side of the cake, so about 15 roses all together. I would have to say count on 1 1/2" of space per rose going around the sides.
My bride wanted a black board under the cakes. I used black wrapping paper and just made sure that the cakes were on cardboards on top of the wrapping paper (there is a thread going on right now about covering your cake-board). Cover with fondant, BC, RI, or paper with contact paper on top. Possibilities are endless.
Do a search and find some photos that you like. Then you can PM that person and ask specific questions. Always happy to help here at CC.

edit to add:
I went to the florist shop and got those little tubes with the stoppers on them that they stick flowers into so that the flowers don't wilt. That way you aren't sticking a bunch of straws in your cake and making it Swiss Cheese.

You can check out a photo of mine that was 14/10/6, done with 7in pillars...but, my roses are silk..if you cake is 4in tall, you will only have 3in of pillars showing...i wasn't even trying to hide the pillars, but they are hid pretty well...hope this helps.

Also, wilton sells some type of pick think that you put on the stem of your live flowers and insert into the cake...can't remember what they are called....I like to use silk, because I am leary of the chemicals used on live flowers...the right silk flowers can look so real too...

Good luck on your first wedding cake.

Using separator plates (same size as the above cake), purchase some floral foam (fairly inexpensive) place one plate face down so the little "legs" are pointing up.

Take your foam (2-3 pieces cut to the height you need) and press down onto the legs, once this is done take another separator plate and place it leg side DOWN and press them into the foam. Trim away any excess. insert roses as needed.

This you can do and keep refidgerated to keep the flowers fresh and then put together and the wedding sight.

You can purchase the foam that you an soak if the flowers are going to be sitting out. Just soak the foam and let dry out enough so that water won't seep out. You can cut a circle of wax paper to place under the roses that are lying on a cake layer.

Hope this helps and is understandable.

As it turns out that my sister wants the cake stacked... so now gotta figure out the way to put in the roses...

If it's going to be stacked, then just place roses around top edge of the cakes. Lots of ideas on this website or check out mine. www.cakekeepsakes.com

I saw a really pretty cakestand in Martha Stewart's wedding magazine. You basically just take a round board in whatever size you need, spraypaint, wrap ribbon around the edges (a normal one and then a cool special zigzag one or whatever you want to do) and then she used cool knobs (like cabinetry knobs) for the supports. If my cake wasn't so big, that's what I would be using. It's really cute!

I guess what I meant from looking at my website was there's different ideas on placing the flowers on a stacked cake. Cake #73 has frosting roses all around but that one has hidden pillars. If the tiers were stacked on each other, the concept would still be the same in putting roses all around the edges of the cakes as long as the roses weren't too big.

I use the plastic dowels from Wilton and cut them to size, they are very sturdy and hold up nice. I believe they are 8" tall so depending how tall your cakes are depends how many packages you need. In regards to the flowers you can wrap the stems with strips of plastic wrap and stick them in the cake. On the top it's best to arrange the flowers in a flower bowl and place that on the top. For the bases I have my father in law cut me a circle 4" bigger than the biggest cake board, attach "feet" (4 wood blocks) under the base for height. I like to cover the wood base with fabric that coordinates with the theme. You can reuse the fabric if you don't glue it on. Place your bottom layer on the base with fabric and continue to build your cake. This has been the cheapest way to display my cakes, usually my father in law has tons of plywood laying around and only spend a few dollars on fabric. I hope this helps

Ahh!!! A success! Everyone LOVES and so proud of my first wedding cake... I did run into some problems because the reception was outside so my icing was soft... and it was hard to do the touch up... and the cake was leaning... i did put the dowel rod all the way through for support... but everyone raved it! Yay!!!