This is my first time to post, but I have spent hours reading the forums and you are all amazing. Not only your cakes, but all the support that you give so willingly. Here is my situation. My daughter is getting married in April and I decided that I wanted to do her cake. I love to bake and had always wanted to learn cake decorating AND she is the most important person in my life (plus my son who died when he was 15), so I wanted to make her day perfect. I took the three basic Wilton classes and learned some of the skills, but am nowhere near where I need to be.
I will actually be doing three cakes (yep, I'm a dummy! 
). Her wedding cake will be 14, 10 and 6 inch tiers with gumpaste dogwood. I am getting there on the dogwood, but I still have plenty of room for improvement. She wants fondant ... I will save that for my next post. I am doing white raspberry (The Cake Doctor butter cake with raspberry extract) with raspberry filling. Since I am doing three cakes and the wedding is not in my home town (about 2 1/2 hours away), I need to do as much as I can ahead of time.
1. I had thought about having the tiers iced and frozen before the wedding so that I can do the fondant at the last minute. I have been putting a thin layer of icing underneath the raspberry to keep it from leaking through, but will it soak into the layer above it? Should I put icing on the bottom of the layers too?
2. Has anyone used the dogwood molds with gumpaste? I have a lot of blossoms done but now she wants ONLY dogwood on her cake so I need to do an arrangement for the top. No cake topper for this girl! Any suggestions on how to get the blossoms wired so that I can arrange and add leaves, etc?
3. I have a horrible problem with my fondant either tearing or being all pleated at the bottom. Any suggestions? I wish that I could get my icing smooth enough to leave the fondant off, but I can't seem to do that either.
4. Jennifer had originally said that she wanted BOLD colors for her cake so that it didn't look girly. I've been working on roses, but now she wants them on the carrot cake so that her wedding cake is ... dare I say it .... girly. I had thought that I would do basketweave on the carrot cake and have it completely done and frozen prior to the wedding. Should I just thaw it and then add the roses? This one will either be 10 and 6" rounds or square. No pillars or anything.
5. The third cake will be german chocolate. I think that I will just take the cake layers frozen and do a plain gc icing with a chocolate border. Maybe put chocolate covered strawberries or chocolate curls on top. This one will be two tiers also. I have the oval pans too, but haven't used them yet because I don't have anything to put them on.
6. I've thought about having 1/2" (or so) glass cut to use for the square and/or oval cakes. Any thoughts?
Okay, I will consider myself lucky if I get suggestions for even a couple of my questions here. I just read through the entire "Wedding Cake ... Help!!!" string and I know that you can help me!
Thank you in advance for your help.
Martha
PS I tried to add pictures of my flowers here, but it said that they are too big. Tried to do my own photo album and I have pictures somewhere, but I don't know if you can see them or not. I am normally pretty computer literate, but I think this wedding has my brain scrambled - or would that be fried?!! 
Welcome & Congratulations! You are going to be stressed out just being the mother of the bride! Try to do all the decorating at home (except maybe a few borders when you assemble the cake there).
1) Soaked in filling tastes good to me! It won't be so slippery either. The heavy layers may tend to slide especially on a long trip. You should do some trial runs on this and see what you like as far as taste.
3) Be more patient with your fondant. It sounds like you are rushing and pulling it out of shape. Try trimming it fairly close to the correct size before smoothing sides. You may have too much excess causing the ripples. (I'm NO expert on fondant)
4) Maybe you could make a round fondant base and go ahead and arrange the flowers on it at home. This way you can set the whole thing on when you are ready and not have to worry about decorating there.
5) If you do chocolate covered strawberries, dip them the day of the wedding. They tend to go bad in a hurry after exposure to heat & chocolate (in my experience).
I salute you for taking on this huge project. You might ask your daughter to take it easier on poor Mom and cut it down to 2 cakes....
Whatever you do, try not to travel with pre-stacked cakes. Your anxiety will be so much less this way. The worst thing in the world to me is traveling with wedding cakes. I'm on edge with every touch of the brakes and bump.
Don't forget to take lots of icing, extra flowers, and tools to do touch ups and repairs! (Just in case)
GOOD LUCK!!
Thanks for your advice, Jenn. I might add that Jennifer had offered to get the german chocolate and carrot cakes from a bakery, but I'm not too concerned about those since they will be fairly simple. Besides, my cakes are WAY too yummy! 
I am going to make MMF with the xanthan gum and glycerine added like I read in one of the forums. That is supposed to make it much easier to work with.
I had thought about getting a styrofoam dome and covering it with fondant to use for the cake top. That way the arrangement could be completely done ahead of time. Now that she wants flowers on two of her cakes, I will need all the help that I can get.
Thank you again.
Martha
The one and only time I froze a cake with the icing on it, was a disaster! As it thawed, the icing slid right off the cake. I ended up scraping off all of the icing, and started all over. Never tried that again, but someone said if you thaw in the refrigerator,it wouldnt do that. I'm not sure.
Hi Sherryb,
I actually saw your dogwood cake before I ever decided to embark on this crazy adventure. It is gorgeous! Did you use the silicone mold? I have a couple of friends who have dogwood growing in their woods (it doesn't normally grow in this part of Texas). IF it blooms early enough, I am going to go ahead and sugar some, but I figure that will just make mine look worse so I might leave it off!
You do amazing work!
Sherry,
How did you do the centers? Yours look great. I made little balls and pressed them into nylon net. I've had to go by pictures, etc. but I wanted them to look as real as possible. I used yellow petal dust on the whole center and then mixed forest green and brown and painted on the tips. I'm still not satisfied with them, but they may have to do since I have about two dozen of them done.
Thanks.
Martha
I,m in the same boat my son is getting married in June 3 hrs away so I will be doing most of my prep at home and transport the cake. There will be 4 tiers all covered in fondant all I will have to do is stack it and finish the decorations when I get there. As for fondant once you have covered the cake you are ok to keep it out for 3 days. If your fondant is tearing your are rolling it to thin I just found that out in class, also covering it may help to raise the cake up higher on a turn table and let the fondant drape down it helps me when I have excess hanging over the edge then use you fondant smoother to lightly smooth the top and work you way down the sides gradually working out the pleats. Put a little icing sugar on the smoother I also use my hands. Have you tried marshmellow fondant yet its easier to work with streches more. There is also a crusting BC that you can smooth with a viva paper towel looks like fondant when you are finished. Hope this helps
good luck.
Sharon
Hi, cakesondemand. Thanks for your advice. I don't really like the taste of the marshmallow fondant, so I have tried to roll it as thin as I can, but I might have gone to the extreme. I just made some and add xanthan gum and glycerine. I'll try it tomorrow and see if it works better.
I found the crusting buttercream icing recipe earlier this morning and will try that too. I would really rather leave the fondant off if I can get my cake smooth enough.
Good luck with the wedding and thank you very much for the advice.
Martha
When I use crusting BC I tried the viva towel method but I think the viva towels are different in Canada because it left impression marks so I now use light interfacing works great. Just keep practicing with the fondant you'll get it took me a while but thats all I like to use now.
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