I am in the process of planning everything a need in order to make the best wedding cake I can. This will be my very first one ever and I am so nervous because I just want to make it what the bride wants it to be and more. I have so many questions and only about a week to figure it out.

The cake is a four tier, white fondant with chocolate swirls and a fondant ribbon on the bottom of each tier. My questions are: would the sizes 16, 13, 10 and 7 be sufficient to feed 200 people? What is the best way to stack such a big cake? Any tips on how to create pretty swirls? Should I torte my cakes or keep them whole for better support? Can I decorate each separate tier individually and then stack it, or do I need to stack it and then decorate it? Should I use a plywood board or can I use the thick poster borads? How would I cover the plywood board if that's what I need to use?

After researching the different sizes of cakes, this is the one I came up with to be the best I thought. I have stacked cakes before but only 3 tiers and they were much smaller. I used the wooden dowels for that and it worked fine. I usually torte all my cakes and I havent had any structural problems but I am not sure for such a big cake if I should do it. I have done swirls once on fondant with royal icing but I think my icing was a little thick because I had trouble getting it out evenly. I have limited fridge space and that is why I am thinking about decorating them separately (risking messing up my swirls) so that I can store them easier.


I am so thankful for any advice you may want to share
Have a great week!

I am sorry....it is a round cake.

I'm very excited and nervous, I'm also making my first wedding cake. But not until Oct. So any advice I can give will be from the vast amount of research I've done so far and from the non-wedding cakes I've made.

I usually use bubble tea straws to support my tiers, but I'm definately going to look into using SPS or something similar when I do a wedding cake. As far as torting. As long as you don't use too much filling and it's not super slippery, you should be fine to tort. I usually only fill between each 2" layer, but occasionally I tort them. I haven't decided what I'll do yet.

I usually do all the stacking first and then decorate. That way you don't mess up any of your design when you put one tier on top of the other. But I guess, depending on your design and how comfortable you are with stacking, you can decorate, then stack.

Definately use plywood or something as sturdy for the bottom board. It can be covered in many different things. Pretty wrapping paper or tissue paper covered in clear contact paper, fondant, the shiny side of freezer paper, the possibilities are endless.

Hope some of that helps. I still have so much thinking and planning to do before I attempt my first one. Im just so glad I have until Oct. to get it all figured out. Cant wait to see a pic of your finished cake! Good luck and most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!!

Thank you so much! I only have two weeks and I am starting to get super nervous. I have researched the SPS as well but my problem with it is that my tiers have to be 4" tall or it won't work. I read somewhere that they sell longer pillars that I can cut but I called global sugar art and they only carry the 4". I am pretty sure my tiers are taller than that. I was thinking about loosing the fourth layer in each tier because when I torte two that makes four and that's how I've been doing it and maybe that will make it 4". I also see that a lot of people use the different dowels and seem to be pretty happy with them. I will have to decide soon because I don't have much time left.
Good luck with your research and I hope I have a picture of a cake in one piece to post here after the wedding