I'm making my first wedding cake and I was planning to do a 3 square tiered cake (14", 12" and 10") with a dummy 2 tiers above it.  The bride would now like an anniversary cake (she said very small) above the top dummy which is 6", can I do that without the whole cake collapsing?  It's basically the cake in the picture with then another small cake on top...I'm really nervous b/c it's my first one and it's getting way more complicated than I thought.  Again...can I do a small cake on top of the top dummy cake?

AYou can add a tier on top of a dummy tier and you won't even need supports.

Having said that, that's a very ambitious cake for your 1st wedding cake...

really, no supports?  do you recommend some royal icing or a glue to keep it in place?

Yes, royal icing or melted chocolate.  As manddi said, it would take a very ambitious person to take on this cake, even if it wasn't your first wedding cake.  I hope you have plenty of time to pracice the design.

First congratulations on your first cake.  It is very ambitious.

Second, the cake on top would be very small.  I'm guessing a 4 inch round at best.  I would work up an actual scale drawing before I said yes.

Third,  everything above the bottom three tiers is exceedingly unstable.  Melted chocolate or RI will not be enough in this instance.  You will need a center dowel at a minimum.  I would consider something stronger.

I know the round design and the 6 inch that tops is will be unstable which is why I suggested styrofoam, won't that help the stability if I do use a wooden center dowel?  Not sure how to achieve the effect another way.

Using styrofoam wouldn't still be enough,you need a solid structure to hold it all together.
 

geez...i almost forgot the bride wants the top small cake on a pedestal, what is the best kind to use for this...i want to order everything i need soon so i can start working on this cake...is a pedestal coming out of a dummy cake possible?

It is all possible.  However, it will involve custom made armature.  You will have to do this yourself.  You will  also need to add the cost to the cost of the cake.

If you can't do this, you need to tell the bride and redirect her to what can be done.

/\/\/\/\/\  This is why everyone is calling this cake so ambitious.  The decorations are intricate.  The structure is difficult.  The composition requires a lot of precision.

For a cake like this, to serve 220, should easily cost $2000.  I hope you are getting paid.  That includes the free topper.
 

I'm not getting paid.  I offered to make her one as a wedding gift and she took me up on it.  It's my first experience working with a bride, it's an education.  I assume that a pvc pipe through the entire thing should suffice for full support, I was going to use the sps system (again, have never done it) but maybe the armature idea is better because everything will be on a central dowel?  In that case, I don't need any other dowels right?

AAnd your doing that cake Free!! Wow

wow that cake for free she is not even paying for the supplies wow be prepared to do a lot of work and make sure u have a good support system inside the cake and make sure the venue is going to give you enough time if u need to assemble it at the location a free cake from me would be a small cake 6inch or 8inch never an extremely large intricate wedding cake way to much work to be given away have fun hope it turns out great please post pics of the finished product

This is your first wedding cake, or nearly first?  Let me say I've made nearly a 1,000 wedding cakes, and I'm not sure I'd attempt that one.  And if I did you'd better believe it would be in the $2,000 range.

Best of luck.

It's not nearly my first...it's most definitely my first.  I've made several cakes but I bake at home and mostly for fun.  It's just this year that I've been paid for things and started a home-based business.  BUT, since wedding cakes are so important, I thought if I do the first one for free, i can charge for ones after that...you are all very helpful and now I'm a little more nervous but hopefully I'll come up with something that works.  Leah...I've actually read many of your posts and blog responses and found them incredibly helpful.  Thanks to all for comments...wedding is August 10 so keep writing if you think of anything.

AWow! First wedding cake, huh? That is certainly jumping into the deep end.

I agree with the above posters re: custom armature/support. The last seriously tricky tall and complicated cake I made had carved styro double tiers in the middle of 9 tiers...I set aside almost 3 weeks to work on it in total, which was the primary reason it cost the client three grand. (I used three centre dowels through the tricky parts in the middle, by the way).

My advice having done big fancy cakes likes this is give yourself plenty of time. Plan like a perfectionist. And I don't want to be a gloomy bugger, but remember you should still have a contract in place. And maybe a frank conversation with this bride about her escalating expectations of what you should be providing! Free labour is one thing, but buying styro, PVC, support armature and now a pedestal (!) for another free tier (!!) is just too much, sweetie. I hope this chick is at least a good friend or family member. But yeah, please cover your a** with your contract!

Evoir...it's my sister-in law's sister but why would I need a contract for a free cake?

You need a contract for a free cake because anything can go wrong at any time and if she is not happy things can always go down hill if you wanted the labor to free okay but the supplies for that cake are going to total somewhere around $500 and that's off the top of my head good luck and be sure to give your self way more then enough time and get help from family and friends if you can I would bake all needed cakes at least 7 days ahead

Pleeeeease Ameeta, we are dying to see photos of your first wedding cake.  I think that you even tried it is fantastic, and I hope the bride realized that any glitches to the cake made it just that much more personal and special.

I know I could have done lots of things differently...better but it took forever and it was a great learning experience!  Thank you again for your help.