Hi all, I am pretty new here.....and I have lots of questions! I am not sure if I am even posting this in the right forum, hope so!!
I made my first biggie cake back in May for my sons 2nd birthday, thanks to lots of help from lurking here!! I just did buttercream, with fondant accents, two tier....well my sister is getting married in October and wants me to do her wedding cake!! She likes the look of fondant, so I practiced today just covering one cake with it and it turned out great! I made the MMF.
Here are questions though...I am a fulltime student and mom of 2 boys, so I have a lot to do, plus the matron of honor in her wedding as well!! SOOO can I bake cake layers and freeze them? Will they be as good? How far in advance do I do that? Then I assume icing and fondant will have to be done pretty close?? How do I transport it, do I assemble here or take each tier and do it there?? Are just dowel rods and cake boards enough? I have a horror already of it collapsing during the wedding lol!!! Also where do I go to look for good fillings, cake flavors, icing, etc. I want it to taste good too!! I usually do the doctored cake mix cakes and use the regular buttercream recipe, but I just do butter...no crisco. I would just love some awesome combos for her wedding....
Sorry for all the ramble and questions, but just wanted to get a start, know I will have LOOOTS more!!!
Thanks!!

Well Brooke that is alot of questions.As for freezing cakes I do it all of the time, it works great, you'll find that alot of people do that. It makes the cake moist. I usually bake the cakes 1-2 weeks ahead of time and wrap in plastic wrap and then in foil. for a saturday wedding I usually take them out of the freezer on wednesday night, leave in the wrap and let them thaw, and in the morning I level, fill and crumb ice the cakes, then I do the final coat on friday and decorate. I'm a chicken so I only take the cakes 2 tiers high and assemble the rest at the venue. If you go to the cake central home page and click on articles at the bottom of the page you can find all kinds of information on stacking cakes. I also like to go on youtube and there are videos for cake decorating. For fillings look in the recipe section of cake central, lots of recipes, good luck.

I decorate as a hobby, work full time and have 2 kids, so I know what your going through. I try to get anything ready in advance that I can.

I agree with cathy, I freeze every cake I make and bake them about 2 wks prior to the event. I also make my fondant ahead of time, so it's ready when I get to that part. Some people even crumb coat the cake prior to freezing.

As far as assembling, many on here like the single plate system (SPS). I will be trying it for the first time next month with a stacked 3 tier wedding cake. From what I've read, I should be able to stack the entire cake and transport to the site completed. With the this plate system you won't need dowels because the weight is on the plates and legs instead of the cake.

HTH
Nikki

SPS all the way. I used it the first time in May. I transported a fully stacked 5 tier cake without a problem. The only thing is that it is extremely heavy. I don't know how many tiers you are going to do but try to have some help carrying. There is a "sticky note" with all the instructions in the "how do I" forum by leahs.