OK - this is the deal.... I got a call from a friend of my cousin asking me to make a wedding cake. We meet and she shows me the picture below. The lady is the MOG and the bride and groom both live in Tennessee (we are in Utah) She said she offered to pay for the entire wedding if they would get married here, but in the meantime she is the only contact I have. She said the bride sent her this picture and this is exactly what she wants. When I look at it - I think it is fondant with buttercream scrollwork and flowers (a little hard to see...) but she wants it in ALL buttercream. Is that possible!?!?! The other kicker is that she only wants the cake to serve 60! ROFLOL I told her we could omit the top layer and it would still be a beautiful cake, but she wants the whole deal...I am thinking the bottom layer should be a dummy? What do you think? I think I have to make the cakes 6, 8, 9 or 10, and then 12. Can I go smaller? Please help!
I'd say you can easily do this in all buttercream. Just practice your smoothing and you'll be great. I'd definately do the bottom tier as a dummy and do a 6, 8, and 10 with the bottom being a 12"! You'll need those
2" differences to accomadate the pillars and look proportionately correct. Good Luck! You can do it!
Good Lord!
First I think it can all be done in buttercream
Second - you DEFINLTLY need a better picture and stress that since you will be using someone else's concept it will not be EXACTLY as the picture shows.
I am not sure of sizes right now, but I'm thinking you are right about a dummy - but don't forget to charge them the proper price! It will only FEED 60, but you will be doing the WORK of a larger cake.
Some people are just nuts!
You could certainly do all that with just BC 
You can definitely do this in bc!
It looks like a 6/8/10/14. If they are saving the top tier the 8/10 will give you 62 but only if you use the wilton chart. Mine are tall and I torte so I use the wilton chart and it works for me. And whoever is serving needs to know how many servings to get out of the cake,especially if it's a family member cutting the cake. Otherwise you might make the 14 real cake and decorate the 8 and 10 as dummies. But you still get to charge well for decorating the dummies! 
The only review I've ever read from someone who used the rolled buttercream said she felt like she need to practice with it to get the feel for it, that it was tricky to use.
hth!
d
I defenitly agree you can do this in Butter cream.
There are so many tools out there to help you! I don't know where to get the rolled bc frosting method but there are scroll impressions that you can buy so you can trace it perfectly.
And for a dummy cake I know where you can buy them but, I always just buy the styrofoam discs at a craft store and hot glue them together. Then I just ad my frosting to that to make it look like the cake!
I would tell whoever asked you to do this that you may have to substitute some things for others or omit things! That is just crazy when people say they want it exactly. No one would NOT be happy if it wasn't slightly different. And she is probably just saying that cause she wants to make the bride happy. There's no problem with that just use your negotiating skills! GOOD LUCK! 
You might also think about asking for the bride's phone number to check in with her and speak directly to her about the number of servings and style.
Some things tend to get lost in the translation some times.
I've used the rolled buttercream for icing cookies - works great. The recipe is on this site. Very easy to work with but never tried it on a cake. It also tastes good. You could easily do this cake in regular b/c and just use the Wilton scroll impression tools. You'll be fine. The picture might be a little intimidating but when you think about it the cake really isn't that difficult. Just take your time and plan your strategy. That seems to work for me when designing an order. Good luck - you can do it!!
Thanks for the support and tips you guys!! This is what I love about CC!
It just popped in to my head that I haven't givin kudos to the original designer of this cake - I just have the picture so I have no idea who made it, but if you are the original cake designer you did a great job and I hope you do not mind if I use your cake as inspiration!!
grama - I don't know if I will use the "chunky" flowers either....The bride actually wants baby carnations instead of the daisies in the bouquets, so maybe I will play off of that...
I think you can do that in buttercream no problem, does not look like a difficult design at all, just really work on the smoothing. Also, indydebi - thanks for the dummy website, they are about half the cost of my supplier WOW
I agree, you could certainly do this all BC. I would definitely use a stamp for the scroll work to keep them consistent.
If you do decide to go the RBC route or you just want to experiment for future cakes, here are a few things I've learned.. First, it tastes yummy. It can be tricky to work with when covering a cake because it doesn't have the same elasticity that fondant does. Temperature and humidity do tend to have an effect on it. Also, it has a shinny finish as opposed to the matte finish of fondant. I did an experimental comparison of RBC and fondant on cupcakes pictured here. I highly recommend experimenting with cupcakes. It's a good way to get the feel of working with RBC without having to make a ton of practice cake. Plus, you can try out different ideas.
Either way I suggest that you practice with the dummy cake if you haven't used one before. They don't have the weight of a real cake and can be quite a bit different to cover sometimes.
HTH
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