i've been doing cakes for awhile now... i attempted my own wedding cake about a year ago and it was a disaster. since then i've taken a few wilton courses and would really like to attempt another tiered cake. (i have yet to take course 3 by the way). would i be crazy to just go ahead and make a wedding cake for the heck of it? i was thinking of doing a 6, 8 & 10" just so i can basically take a picture of it and have it in my cake book. my hubby can take one of them to work but as for the rest... who knows where they'll end up. it's probably just a big waste of cake but i've been pondering this for awhile. i have nothing to do all day tomorrow and thought maybe that would be a good time to try this... would the 6, 8 and 10" look okay together or should i do a different combination? thanks everyone!
I say go for it! I feel your pain, I too am waiting for my first 'real' wedding cake - all I've done so far is a croquembouche (big profiterole tower thing), and then in August I've got to do a chocolate fudge cake with 144 brownies in tiers. Why can't someone ask me to do something normal???!!! A 6,8 &10 will look fine, you can't really tell what sizes tiers are unless there's something else in the picture to give the cake perspective! Enjoy your spare time doing what you love, I'm sure the cakes will find a home somewhere!. Good luck!
Do the wedding cake!! Save the 6" for a 'special" surprise for your husband maybe on Saturday nite after a nice dinner just for the two of you!! Make sure you take a picture and post it so we can see it! I haven't taken course 3 yet either (my instructor is in the UK), but I have done a very simple but elegant cake for a couple that was together for 13 yrs before they got married. She just loved it! GO FOR IT!!! 
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Go for it I was the same way a couple of weeks ago I have a friend that needed a wedding shower cake she asked if I could make her a cake, all she wanted was a cake to feed 20 people she said you can do anything you want I trust you so I thought here is my chance I made her a 3 tier cake I made gum paste roses (first time ever) and decorated it just like a wedding cake when she came to pick it up she was amazed she said this cake was prettier than her own wedding cake I was so happy I didnt charge her much because really all she wanted was a small cake I had fun doing it and I got the experience so we both came out ahead I have not posted pictures of it yet but as soon as I get them I will but if you look at my photos its simpler to my sons graduation cake only one layer smaller for each tier so please do it youll have fun and just think their will be no pressure enjoy.
Molly2
The only real way to learn a new technique is to do it! You can give the other layers away to neighbors. Mine love it when I call to say I've got cake!!!!
If I could afford the ingredients I'd be making practice cakes all the time. I say you should do it! Go ahead and practice with real cake, using pillars and dowels and whatever else you need. Decorate and take photos, then take apart and give the tiers away to friends, neighbors, co-workers and such. A great way to drum up some business! Give everyone a link to a website or photo diary (like a blog) where they can see what it is that you do.
I'd like to be able to do this too. Experiment with flavors, recipes, different types of mediums and just have a great time of it. You'll learn a lot and find out for sure if it's something you really want to commit too. If I had a job... I'd have two! If that makes any sense!!! lol. I'd be in the kitchen baking up a storm. 
Go ahead and do it. The only wedding cake I have done was my daughters. I can't really use that one as a guide because I baked and iced it at home then transported it 500 miles and decorated it in our suite at the hotel. It turned out perfect after I did the sting work about 10 times each tier. because it had to be perfect . But I did many other practice cakes that went to work with me. I also took them to our fire department. The guys were thrilled to get home made cake for dessert.
I would definitely encourage you to do a practice wedding cake if you can afford to do so. It may be better to do a tiered cake, rather than a stacked cake if you're going to send the cake to several different places when you're done. That way you can just take a plate off and box it up.
When I want to try something new...I like to talk my customers into letting me try it in exchange for a discount on their cake.
As for the wedding cake: you could easily make a tier cake for a birthday party as well. I can definitely see a "princess" themed cake.
You could decorate the cake with flowers - take the picture...and then from there you can add towers and turns the cake into a castle, or put wands and crowns, and "finish" the cake as anything you wanted.
Perhaps there is an anniversary coming up in your family or circle of friends. Your "practice" could turn into one great gift!
STYROFOAM! I have made several pratice cakes using it and you can use it over and over. All you need is the icing. once the cake is done you have taken a picture wipe the icing off and make a new one. I did this for all three of my Wilton couse. I WAS NOT GOING to gain weight just to learn how to decorate a cake. GO FOR IT! 
This nice thing about the styrofoam dummy decorating is that you don't have to work on it continously. It never gets stale. So take your time at perfecting your skills. And it is a lot lower in calories.
I have a friend who orders cakes from me from time to time. The only thing she usually demands is chocolate cake so I can do pretty much whatever I want. She wanted a cake for work last week, and I was dying to try marbling fondant so I did. She is happy to be my guinea pig. She is the ONLY person who gets my cakes for the price of ingredient. In turn I get to do whatever I want.
Hi eveyrone. I am new to this board and have been reading everything for the past few days, whew, ALOT of reading. I am no professional cake decorator, but do enjoy giving new ideas a whirl. I came across this board while surfing the internet for a cake idea for my daughter's upcoming 16th birthday. My question is this...........I noticed a yellow page section but thought for sure there would be a "decorator for hire" section, does that make sense? I know the cake I am looking for I can't make, at least not without practicing a few times, and I don't have the time. But.........I have admired everyone's work for days and would love to have someone make me a cake for my daughters party. Besides going through the member list and looking for people in my area, is there another way to go about finding a baker within this board?
I would love to be someone's "practice dummy" and pay them for practicing, it would definately be better than what I could produce.
Any thoughts or comments?
Debbie
i did my tiered cake... it's not much... just a 6 and 8" for the 4th of july... at least i got to try to do a ruffle border and some stringwork... just thought i'd post it to show everyone
Really beautiful cake!!
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