Hi! I got asked by Icing Smiles to do a tres leches cake to feed forty people in a Pokémon theme. Wow! It's a dream cake so I feel a bit pressured. Anyways I had a couple questions:

1) What size should I make the tiers? I looked at the Wilton chart under party servings and I thought I could do 8",6",4" tiers. Is three tiers okay for a birthday party? I'm a bit hesitant to do three tiers but I was unsure on how to make 2 tier cake to serve forty. 

2) The families preferred flavor is tres leches but tres leches is a soaked sponge cake covered in whipped cream with fresh fruit... How could I make a tiered cake and still make it tres leches? How could I make it so it doesn't have to be refrigerated? Any good recipes to do this?

3) Does anyone have any ideas on what I could do for the decoration? I don't have any fondant experience other than making a couple small 2-d characters. I was thinking to ice the cake with Pokémon theme colors or maybe to ice one tier as a pokeball? Is that what they're called? But how would I do this with buttercream? Also, maybe have some plastic Pokémon figures/toys? I'm not really sure! Any ideas/suggestions are really appreciated. 

4) What kind of box do you use to package your cakes? Do you package them stacked and if so where do you get boxes large and sturdy enough to hold the cake? Can anyone point me to some resources?  

5) I've only ever use bamboo dowels for stacking. Would this work for this cake? Are there better options?

Sorry for all the questions! I know some of these questions have been asked already! I want to make sure I do everything right. Thanks so much!

It won't let me edit the post but how many layers per tier do you typically have? I usually do 3 layers with each cake layer 1" tall and each filling layer 1/4" tall or 4 layers with each cake layer 3/4" tall and each filling layer 1/4" tall. This would make each tier about 4" tall? 

I did a little bit of research and came to my original conclusion....don't try it!  I would hesitate to stack a  tres leches cake, not to mention tiers!  You should advise your Icing Smiles contact that it is an impractical choice and let them give you a second option.

That being said, you could do tres leches cakes in sheet cake pans and creat some sort of Pokemon keepsake out of gum paste or fondant.  You asked about size, I recently did this Icing Smiles cake for 40 people and it is a 10" x 6" base tier with a 8" x 11" double barrel second tier.  Not sure how many people showed up,but they had cake left over.  The Mickey Mouse as easy to remove and the grandmother kept it for the child as a keepsake.  

1) What size should I make the tiers? I looked at the Wilton chart under party servings and I thought I could do 8",6",4" tiers. Is three tiers okay for a birthday party? I'm a bit hesitant to do three tiers but I was unsure on how to make 2 tier cake to serve forty. 

I wouldn't use the party servings chart.  That's a LOT of cake.   I would use the wedding tiered chart. I would suggest using 9 or 10",  then 6 & 4.   The lgst one woud be made up of 2 layers each 2" tall w/filling between them, the 6 & 4  would each be made up of 1 1/2 layers for a total heigth of 3".  Or you could make them each 2 layers but I think they look better 3" tall. 

3) Does anyone have any ideas on what I could do for the decoration? I don't have any fondant experience other than making a couple small 2-d characters. I was thinking to ice the cake with Pokémon theme colors or maybe to ice one tier as a pokeball? Is that what they're called? But how would I do this with buttercream? Also, maybe have some plastic Pokémon figures/toys? I'm not really sure! Any ideas/suggestions are really appreciated. 

Not real sure I can help any w/this one.  I would suggest the plastic figures if they are not too small to be a choke problem for children.  I like your idea of the pokeball. 

4) What kind of box do you use to package your cakes? Do you package them stacked and if so where do you get boxes large and sturdy enough to hold the cake? Can anyone point me to some resources?  

You can get moving boxes at places like Wal_Mart or Staples etc.

5) I've only ever use bamboo dowels for stacking. Would this work for this cake? Are there better options?

Use plastic drink straws instead of bamboo, which absorbs the moisture in a cake and can easily bend :(  You can get straws at fast foodplaces like McDonalds - theirs are thicker/fatter than someplace like TacoBell.  Use 3 to 5 in the lrgst tier and  3 in a triangle pattern in the 6"er.  

I'm in total agreement w/Sandra on not doing a tiered  tres leches cake!  And her sizes show the sizes I suggested would be enough and a much more stable cake for delivering.

How abour maybe a sheet tresleches w/'regular' tiers on top.  It would look something like thi:    http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/88936/disney-princess-castle     Or this on e sheet:   http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/1285669/small-rounds-for-wedding  

Just showing yhou wohat putting tiers on a sheet could look like. 

That's an interesting idea! Thanks!

Yay! I finished the cake and I think it might be my best work lol.  My brother helped me design the cake so it would follow the storyline of Pokémon whatever that is lol. 

My first time working with fondant too for the decorations hehe

You did a wonderful job, Paola!  Your characters are spot on!  Bet this will not be the last time you use fondant for modeling.

Wonderful, wonderful.   I'm sure your client was super happy with this creations.

@SandraSmiley Thanks! The characters on the top of the cake and on the cake board are toys. 

@kakeladi Thanks! The family looked really, really happy