I have been asked to make the cake on the front of the Wilton Wedding Cakes A Romatic Portfolio. The picture shows three tiers with royal icing dots and gumpaste roses around each tier and the tiers are 4" difference in size (6-10-12"). It serves 116.

The bride wants a 4 tier cake - she is expecting 250 people.

You wedding experts will know better:

1) If she's expecting 250 people, should the cake really be big enough to serve 250? or maybe 200?

2) Would you make a 6-10-14-18" tiers? or 4-8-12-14" tiers (which I figure would serve 18 and maybe a sheet cake to make up the difference. I don't work with fondant much yet and I'm betting trying to get it on an 18" tier would be difficult.

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated! I don't want to blow this order! or her reception!

Thanks!

You need to ask your bride how many servings she wants to pay for.

If she wants 250 then that is how many you must make.

You can make "cutter" cakes..meaning those that won't be in the actual display but will be used for slices to serve. They are generally not "fully" decorated...saves the bride money and you time.

I cost out the "display" cake..then the plainer cutters. Often brides will jump at the chance to have the number of servings they need at a savings.

Thanks! I love the cutter cake idea. I think I'll nudge her in that direction. If not, I'll learn how to cover a very large cake in fondant!

It IS quite difficult to cover large cakes in fondant when you're not that experienced with it...and an 18" x 4" tall cake will require that you roll the fondant out to about 28" across.

For the cake to yield your target number of servings, you would need to make it 6" (0 svgs), 10" (38 svgs), 14" (78 svgs), and 18" (146 servings). This will yield 262 servings. Personally, I would not do this cake for under $5 per serving. Your fondant cost is going to be significant (please, consider buying Satin Ice fondant and NOT Wilton fondant), plus it will take you many, many hours to do the roses. My estimate on the roses is 25 hours...but that's based on figuring 20 minutes per rose plus a few extras.

That is quite a cake! I've always hoped one of my brides would choose it...but haven't had one pick it yet.

Wait...what am I saying? I forgot about the extra roses to place around the bottom tier....you would probably need 46 additional roses to ring around the 18". That would be another ~ 14 hours.

I would definitely go the route of using the sheet cakes in the kitchen. If you are not comfortable with the fondant...you might opt for a similar design done in smooth buttercream icing.

If you decide to go the fondant route...I agree with Cakepro...buy the Satin Ice fondant. It is so much easier to work with than Wilton. Also, the wilton fondant tastes really bad! And make sure you go up on the serving price...Fondant cakes cost more to do than buttercream.

Good luck!!!!

Thank you so much for all of the advice. I'd better start those roses now if the wedding is in September!

I have already tasted the Wilton fondant and have decided to NEVER, EVER, EVER buy that stuff! Ugh! I can't believe Wilton actually sells that stuff!

I'll mention the smooth buttercream instead of fondant and see which she'd rather pay for. I've decided that all of my family cakes from now until September will be Satin Ice to get the hang of it before the wedding...

Thank you all so much! You're the greatest!

I think you will enjoy using Satin Ice! It has a much nicer feel than the Wilton. It also has a much better taste!