I need to make a purse cake for this weekend. I need it to serve approx 10-15 and don't really want to do the split rounds. I'd like it to be more taller than wide. I'm not sure what size cake I should bake to layer up and carve. Any suggestions? TIA!

It would help, if you could at least post a link to a picture of the type of purse you would like to make. You can bake squares and cut them in thirds, stack and carve. I have baked rectangles with the same techniques. All depends on the purse

Without knowing what kind of purse you need, here's a good tutorial for one. There are all kinds of purses, but maybe this one would give you an idea.

http://sweetthings-toronto.blogspot.com/2010/04/purse-cake-tutorial.html

Click on the images to enlarge them so that you can see clearly.

Found another one:

http://www.thecakerator.com/2010/01/mini-purse-cake-tutorial.html

I have a purse cake that I do (Burberry inspired) and I use two loaf pans to bake the cake, one slightly larger than the other. I stack those with SMBC between, carve to make a flat surface on all sides and crumb coat before covering with fondant.
You can see the cake in my photos I think.

I use to have a tutorial for bigger purse on my blog "The Cakerator" but I took it down, here is one I posted here a while back.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1356679

It's similar to what was on my blog, good luck.

Here are 2 more tutorials using different techniques.

http://sugarteachers.blogspot.com/2009/04/making-of-louis-vuitton-purse-cake.html

http://sugarteachers.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-mara-tirado-makes-purse.html

Thank you, Maria! I love your blog. I didn't know it was yours. At some point, I just dragged the url into my filing system from somewhere and kept on reading at the posts. I just realized that it's yours. It's beautiful.

Thanks, it fun for now until I get tired of it

Thanks for those tutorials! I tried to post the picture but it wont upload. I was going to make a 9x13 and cut into 4x9 rectangles torte and stack with strawberry cream cheese filling freeze and then trim down the top corners. I'm hoping that will work for this.