Hi, I'm brand-new to cakecentral.com. I have a request to create a cake in the shape of a wine bottle (laying down) that's big enough to feed 50-60 people. I know I'll cover it in dark green fondant. Do they sell green luster dust so I can get that shiny appearance (to look more like glass)? Any ideas on how to begin construction? I'm thinking of stacking 9" rounds, cut in half, on their flat ends side by side. Then using the inside of a heating core for the neck of the bottle. But I think that will still only give me about 36 servings. So, should I put the bottle on top of a sheet cake, and find some creative way to cover that? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!! Also, should I freeze the layers ahead of time so they're easier to cut?

How about cupcakes halved and stacked for the neck of the bottle? Then you don't have to worry about getting your heating core back!

Ok according to the serving chart here on cake central a 2 layer 9 inch cake serves about 30- 32 people so you would need to make it at least 4 layers hig which is 8 halfs. that seems a bit big to me. If you put it on a sheet cake maybe you could make it look like a crate??? just an idea. I did a corona bottlein april for my fil and i used 6 inch rounds. (Its in my photos take a look if you want) for the neck of the bottle i used a 3inch round cut to fit. maybe if you increased the cake size to a 10 or 12 inch round to make the whole bottle bigger then you wouldnt have to make a sheet cake. Just a few ideas hope this helps you out.

Thanks to you both for making those suggestions. Susan, your Corona cake looks great, but what was the disaster that happened? I need to know so I don't make the same mistake! I really want to keep the base of the wine bottle 8-9 inches so the bottle doesn't have to be any longer than about 20 inches. If I increase the base to 10-12 inches, than proportionately the bottle would have to be pretty big. I was thinking that I could make the sheet cake underneath look like a crate/basket that the bottle of wine is sitting in, maybe with a fondant red/white checkberboard napking laying on top?

oh my disaster was with my fbct not the actual cake. The fbct melted off the cake. when we got to my fil house it had melted off and was a puddle in the box. lol funny now not so funny then.

oh i might add i used whipped icing and the fbct didnt set well on it. it would have worked better had i frozen the fbct on something rounded instead of freezing it flat.

sorry that happened, susan! but thanks for letting me know - that's definitely something worth keeping in mind!

no problem lol what if for your cake you put it on a sheet cake and decorated it with grapes either real or icing grapes.

lol we definitely think alike! I plan to have clusters of fondant grapes on the cake board, around the cake!

lol yeah great minds do think alike. it seems as though you got it all planned out.

There's some good advice here! I wish I'd been on this forum last year when I did a wine bottle to feed 50...it was a challenge to make such a large cake in that shape and even to try to calculate portions!

You guys are great! Here was my attempt using chocolate rolled fondant.....

I love the crate idea! You could use fondant and make it look like the straw? packing material that is always in those wine crates. Maybe make a corkscrew to lay in with the grapes. Or cheese and a cheese knife...

Hi Antonia,
I saw your web site - your cakes and cookies are GORGEOUS! Can you please share with me how you made the wine bottle cake for 50? What were the dimensions? The only thing I can figure is that I'll either have a bottle with an 8" base that's 20" long or a 10" base that's 25" long. I was kind of hoping to keep it on a 16x24 cake board, but I need it to feed 50-60 people. Any help you can give me is greatly appreciated! Thanks so much in advance!

hey you should check out confetticakes.com under specialty cakes and foodies they have a beatiful wine crate that might give you some inspiration

From memory, I think the wine bottle was made from 4 layers of 7" x 12" cake and the neck was 2 layers of scrap cake.

I just filled, stacked, froze it solid, carved its shape with a bread knife, crumb-coated in a thick layer of buttercream, froze it solid overnight and then covered it in chocolate fondant right from the freezer.

I let it sit out for 8 hours to thaw & to go through the condensation stage, then added the label, the fondant board, etc.

Wow, those instructions are a great help, thank you!! How did the fondant adhere to the frozen buttercream? How long does the "condensation" stage last? I've never frozen a cake that's already been covered in fondant before. Thank you so much!