I delivered my first wedding cake Sat. Well On the way there my rear tire popped on the highway. The family is very close to me like my own family so someone came to get me. The informal reception was outdoors and it was HOT! My bottom tier was 4" the middle " and the top was about 3. While stacking it the icing got all smushed because of the heat and part of the stencil was messed up. Luckily I had made and brought some Calla Lilies (OMG found out they were the brides favorite! Hallejuia!!) and they were stuck on to cover the smudged stencil. Now here comes the very worse part....They wanted to save the top so I removed it and boxed it. Cutting it was not part of my contract but I was asked so I did. I cut it according to Earlene's cake chart. Did not work well with an 8"tier. When I cut the sides they fell completely over! It was the worst looking cake "slices" ever and it took 3 people to hold it together while being served. My only saving grace was that the flavor and consistency was like eating a cloud spread over a slice of heaven....Even though it turned out like this i have still been contacted from people wanting cakes. Think I will stick with regular 4" tiers untiI am more experienced! Any tips or advice would be appreciated

We are always our own worst critics.  I bet it didn't look near as bad as you say/think :)

Of course, having it taste so devine helps.

It sounds like one of the tiers was 8" high? It probably should have been stacked according to the method used for double barrel/extended tiers. I'm not sure how many layers were in that tier but assuming there were 8 layers of cake, the top 4 layers should have been on a separate cardboard base - as though it was another tier although its obviously the same size as the 4 layers below it. Then you cover both sections in the one layer of fondant so it looks like just one higher than standard tier.

SO, that now brings me to the cutting: my understanding is that when cutting an extended tier, you cut diagonally where the hidden cardboard base is, then cut the two halves as you would normally cut two separate tiers.

I hope you understood what I meant! Lol!

The pictures here might explain a bit better than my rambling!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deliciously_decadent/3799449562/

kakeladi...no it really was that bad. But it was so informal and we have all been so close that everyone laughed about it. I don't think I am ready for tall tiers yet. I have 1 more wedding cake scheduled and they are all 4" tiers indoors. After that I think I will stick to birthday/showers/ retirement/ anniversary cakes for now. But the tatse....OMG....never made the WASC before and I used IMBC favored with Loranna's Princess emulsion. WOnderful