I'm wondering about the best way to make this cake. The little 'cups' are easy - figure I can just use cupcakes for those. But the tea pot is where I'm stumped. Do I use the ball pan or just use 4-6, 6' rounds and stack them and then carve? The customer doesn't want the cake covered in fondant so I'm just using buttercream. I'm worried if I use the ball pan that I'll never get it smoothed really well - so that's why I'm leaning toward the stacking and carving method. It would be taller and easier to ice and smooth - as opposed to the ball pan cake, which would be shorter/rounder.
So, for those of you who've done this kind of cake, and those of you just generally more experienced than me...what do I do?? Any ideas on this or all aspects of doing this kind of cake would be great! TIA! 
I made this teapot and teacup set a while ago.
The saucers were made from pastillage rolled and placed over the backs of real saucers (use a lot of icing sugar to stop them sticking) leave them to dry for the night and then decorated with royal icing.
The teacups were baked inside real mugs greased a lot on the insides so they'd come out easily. Then simply covered in fondant icing and decorated.
The teapot was baked in two round bowls and then the two halves stuck together and decorated.
The spout and handles are all modelling paste which was dried beforehenad and attached with cocktail sticks.
Hope this has been of some help.
Thank you both. Emmascakes....WOW! That is a fabulous cake! Thanks for sharing so much detail about how you made it....I really appreciate it! LeeAnn - thanks for the tips! I was referring to getting the buttercream really smooth when icing the cake...icing a round cake can be a real nightmare sometimes. 
I also used the ball pan and iced in buttercream. I used a sheet of paper to help 'finish' the icing, to get it smooth on the rounded surface and it worked great. Just use the edge of the paper to 'scrape' as it will form to the round shape easily.
Good luck and have fun!
Here's a link with instructions on making a teapot cake:
http://www.creativecookskitchen.com/tea/teacake_front.html
Glad you like my cake! I'm sorry I don't have any experience with icing with buttercream - it isn't done in the UK, not sure why. I think it would be anightmare to work with so good luck to all of you who do that. Could you maybe scrape some over the ball cake, fridge it until the buttercream is hard and then go for a second smooth layer?
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