I think I have lost my mind, seriously. I have only ever made sheet cakes and I have never stacked cakes. I am helping to plan a baby shower and I made the mistake of admitting that I have always wanted to do fondant work. Somehow that equaled me agreeing to make a topsy-turvy cake covered in fondant.

I have been trying to work with fondant for the last couple of days and I think I can manage it farily well (I even successfully made my own fondant). I plan on making a few cakes tonight to practice stacking/covering them. I have three weeks to pull this together. I am always up for a good challenge, but I need to know, is that enough time to acquire ANY skills so this cake doesn't look like a total mess OR should I just arrange for the local bakery to prepare the cake?

Go to youtube, there are videos on covering a cake with fondant, stacking cakes, even how to make a topsy turvy. I think it will help you by actually seeing it being done. Good Luck!!

I think it's enough time if you watch a few YouTube tutorials. It's how I learned how to cover cakes with fondant, as well as how to stack cakes!

Also be sure to look through this site....the veterans on here have hooked us up with TONS of tutorials and advice to make life easier for us!

Good luck and excited to see how your cake turns out!

I'd definitely practise a topsy turvey tier and letting it sit for 24 hours to make sure you can get the fondant smooth(ish) on this kind of cake. You might even find it easier to just carve in the bottom of the tiers, rather than doing the topsy turvey shape. Like this: http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1157618

Otherwise, I'm sure you'll be fine!