The cake for daughters wedding will require 8-9 cake mixes. You can only mix two at a time (I tried 3...what a mess!!) so what do you do with the batter to stop it loosing it's "life" while mixing the others?
I am hoping to bake the layers in one day, on the Monday(and cover with saran wrap). Crumb coat on Tues and fondant on Wed. Final decorating will be Friday night after rehearsal.
Does this seem a realistic time frame?
That should be fine, but if you can decorate on Thursday or earlier Friday, it might help you be less stressed out before the wedding.
As far as the batter goes, If you put the batter in the pan it will be cooked in, it will bake as normal when it finally gets its turn in the oven, if you leave it in the bowl, all of the baking powder reacts in the bowl instead of the pan and your cake will not rise as much when it get to be baked.
What size mixer do you have?
I think it's a realistic time frame. I normally bake my wedding cakes on Monday's or Tuesdays', and crumb coat asap, but that may be the next day (I don't normally wrap, but my fridge is on the coldest setting).... oh, I'm sorry, I read that you wanted to do final decorations on Friday night after the rehearsal - no, I don't think that's good. You are putting fondant on, on Wednesday, so you cannot refrigerate from that point anyway, correct? I would suggest to start the final decorations on Thursday.
I'm not the expert on fondant cakes - so other people's responses please... but I don't think the mother of the bride should be up all night finishing the wedding cake, the night before the wedding.
Can you do it on Friday morning? I just think Thursday & Thursday night should be for the cake, so you can TRY to relax after the rehearsal dinner!
Thanks for bringing this up, because I'm already thinking about my daughters wedding & she wants me to do the cake... but I have a few years, so this is good info for me!
Soooo glad I asked this. I had no idea there could be a reaction in the bowl. I am using the KA Accolade mixer.
I was going to do the final decorations on Firday because I was concerned that any SW frosting would melt if I did it earlier. I am using it for ruffles etc. on the cake and to attach the gumpaste flowers. The cake can not go in the fridge because of the fondant.
I should say too what the cake is in case there are concerns with it.
I am using Duncan Hines french vanilla, enhanced with butterscotch pudding and the filling is the caramel we all talked about ( the boiled in the can sweetened condensed milk) Do you think there will be a problem with it sitting for 2 days?
Tent arrives Thurs night and we set up, Firday we pick up all the tables and chairs and set up.
If you think this cake, fondant, gumpaste and SW frosting will hold up, I could do it Thurs morning. No air conditioning here at all but I could get a large box to put over it.
When I'm baking large cakes or lots of cakes, I keep the batter in the fridge (in a plastic rubbermaid-type container, not the metal mixing bowl) and then take it out about 20 minutes before I put it in the oven, so it can warm up a little bit. I've never had trouble with it not rising because it had been in the fridge.
I think you're very wise to bake early, but then why not put the cakes in the freezer for a couple days? I think that if you do the fondant as early as Wednesday, you will be just fine. The fondant seals in the cake's moisture better than anything else, and on Saturday, the cake will taste like it was just baked.
Here's another suggestion ... when I got married, my mom (who also has a cake business) made my wedding cake. She did a 4-tier fondant cake, but only the top tier was real. The other 3 were styrofoam. Of course, no one could tell that the whole cake wasn't real. The picture is in my photos (4-tier offset square cake in light shades of orange, yellow, etc. --- we got married in the fall). Then, we had a cake buffet with about 10-15 different types of cake. Those were just 8" and 10" rounds, so they were a lot easier to decorate (just icing, no decorations) than a wedding cake. She was able to do the wedding cake early in the week (except for the top tier, which she did on Thursday), since it was styrofoam, and didn't have to worry about that later in the week. Just an idea to make your life simpler during that already very busy week!! 
CakesbyJess, that was a good idea for your mother. I see a lot of mothers-of-the-brides doing the wedding cakes and I can just imagine the stress involved!
I think you'll find that more people refrigerate fondant cakes than not. I refrigerate mine in layers---it wouldn't fit fully constructed. You might want to put them in boxes in the fridge and keep boxed til they thaw. Even if there is condensation on the cake, just leave it undisturbed and it will dry out. I do this with the cake tiers ( no decorations). However, it takes time to thaw out cakes, so you need to plan for that.
What is SW icing?
As for baking, I would only mix up as much batter as would fit in my oven at one time. I make my cake 2 or 3 days ahead, and wrap them and put them in the freezer or fridge til I fill and ice them.
I'm sure your cake will be great! I wouldn't worry about the fondant in the fridge.
Never remotely done anything like a wedding cake or cake size before- but when I bake banana bread and what not I bake large batches and freeze some and I've always just read that it's best to do the batter in batches, but I've never tested what would happen not doing that (as say Rose would do in the cake bible, and test out a bunch of different methods to see what happens during each lol)
It's a bit of a pain in the arse for cleaning up, but I clean up as I go anyway lol.
And then there is that point I read somewhere about scaling and baking 3 or many cake recipes together does not produce good results (even if just mixing the entire batch together and then divying up into separate cake pans). That's just in my novice experience and what I've read - never tried it to see what happens if you don't LOL
Good luck! Sounds like a lot of work! Your daughter is a lucky girl! And I like cakebyjess's idea about the one tiny layer being edible, and the rest being styrofoam lol
Having been to a number of weddings myself- I would have to concur that it's not just stressful for the bride, but also for the mom and/or whoever else is 'in charge' - make sure you have ample time to relax so you can actually have fun on the day off and not feel frazzled (and also be energized and 'able' to be a pillar of strength for your daughter when her nerves go 
)
((thanks all))) The cake is only two tiers. Remember the "my final practice cake #5" thread?
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-25139-taigen.html
Well that is the one they want for the wedding. It serves 73 and there are between 60=70 coming. The topper will be different than the practice cake but other than that I'm hoping it will turn out as nice.
SW frosting is the snow white frosting, made with shortening instead of butter so you get a true white.
My nerves are starting to get to me...never mind the bride!!! LOL I have sooo many irons in the fire right now. This really is a "homemade personalized wedding" I just hope it is a very special day and rememberance for them both. If I get a chance (yeah right haha) I will post on the general forum all the photo's of the things made so far. It is fun but at times can get pretty stressful. I'm a do ahead type of person and some things just can't be. If I was doing this for someone else it would be fine....but with it being MY daughter....wow the emotions kick in.
You guys have been a wealth of imformation to me and I really do appreciate it very much.
It's going to be an awesome cake. After you've done a few, anything less than 100 servings is "a piece of cake" I think since you've done the cake before, (or similar) and it's only 2 tiers, you shouldn't have problems doing the cake in the time you've allowed.
I hope you get joy out of making the cake and that it's a sweet memory for you and your daughter. 
I have not done a wedding cake - but I have done a lot of fondant stacked party cakes. Here is what I do:
No matter if I bake one day out or 4 day's out, I always turn my cakes out onto saran wrap and wrap up. If it's to be decorated the next day - I put in the fridge, if it's more days then that - I freeze (I know, some people hate freezing cakes....but I do - to each his own...). My cakes are always moist since I started doing this. I've never frozen them with a crumb coat...just never needed to.
If I can't cover in fondant and decorate in the same day I have put my fondant coverd cakes in the fridge. I've read several posts saying you can't do that...but I didn't know any better and I did it .... and I didn't have any problems. A little condensation - but I took it out 2-3 hours before decorating and the condensation was gone. The only time I will not do this is if I've done a painted cake. I'm scared that the colors will run....so I just haven't tried that.
I think your time frame is OK, but I do agree with what some others have said...decorating after the reh. dinner could be very stressful....but if you have all your icing ready and all of your tools ready to go and be very organized - you'll do just fine. Just remember to stay relaxed and have FUN!
your cake was beautiful btw!!! Your daughter is lucky to have you do this for her.
Good Luck!
just a couple of thoughts.....i did my daughter's wedding cake (cheesecake) last august.....so my first suggestion is that you should absolutely finish it on friday morning.........banish everyone from coming near you..... (let's just say i threatened everyone with their life) 
and get it done......
second.....you really do not want the stress of having to finish that in case there is some last minute "crisis" that takes your time.....and usually there is!! i am an extremely organized person....to the point of having my time table down to the minute for her wedding.....but there are always things that are out of your control that happen.....and had i waited till friday nite to finish i would have been in trouble....my theory is control what you can and leave time to control what you can't!!!! ....i hope this helps some......and good luck!!!!!! 
After reading all your posts and suggestions I think I am going to aim earlier. I will bake the same time frame but aim for Thurs morning to be the LASTest to decorate. Hopefully I can get it done Wed and put it in a box. Started piecing together the butterflies and dragonflies last night. Today is WAY to hot to work with the royal. I have a de-humidifier running in the room to keep the humidity out. I just tried one dragonfly body (black royal over the gumpaste body) and it just is far too hot. It held it's shape but not as quickly as I would have liked. I'd rather not risk the others even though I did make extras.
I made the cake boards last night and worked on the topper for the cake. I have soooo many boxes of this and that it's hard to move around the art room!!!
Anyway....thanks soooo much for all the advice. You guys are great
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