Hi folks...here's my questions: 1) I need to make a square wedding cake for 150 guests. The picture the bride gaveme has 5 cakes - stacked and covered in baby blue fondant and elaborate scrollwork. What size plans do I use and how much fondant will it take? Bear in mind, I'm relatively new to fondant.
Question#2: Can you use molds for the scrollwork and do you all know of a good supplier...preferably online, that can ship them to me in NC.
thanks!
http://www.wilton.com/wedding/cakeinfo/cakedata.cfm
Above is the Wilton cake cutting chart. If she is dead set on having 5 tiers for only 150 people, you may have to use a styrofoam for the bottom tier. A 12/10/8/6 is 154 servings with the 6" reserved for the 1st anniversary and not counted in the number of servings.
I dont' use fondant so I can't help with the volume question there.
This cake of mine has a styrofoam bottom: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=534443
This cake shows you what the 2" diff will look like:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=303543
Thanks indydebi,
Love your photos! Another question - how do you price for the styrofoam cake dummy? I get requests for this as a filler/alternative and I feel that I have to put almost the same labor in it as real cake. I haven't ventured there yet; but I get asked about it often.
Welcome to CC!
A 5-tier square stacked cake will be way too many servings for 150 guests. To do this, I would use:
6" saved for anniversary, if not, use styrofoam
9" in styrofoam
12" serves 60
15" serves 98
18" in styrofoam
as I like a minimum of 3" between the tiers. Reducing it to 2" will make your 5-tier cake look really tall, pillar-like imho.
This will give you 158 servings. Be sure to charge for the styrofoam tiers 
Use this table to determine how much fondant you will use: http://www.wilton.com/wedding/makecake/fondant/fondantamounts.cfm
For the scrollwork, you can use the pattern press sets from Wilton to make them look consistent when you pipe them or trace with fondant pieces: http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30D882-475A-BAC0-5D0833D2D8DFB041
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30D891-475A-BAC0-51DF77778B7B0CDF
ceeceemac, because I also do catering, the bride is usually writing me a 4-figure check, so I will do the styrofoam layer for $25. I always do my "sales pitch" to make it sound like I'm throwing it in for "only" $25 and she feels that she got a deal on the deal! (Shhhh! Don't give away my secret!)
If I was doing JUST the cake, I would charge full price with the following explanation:
1) the icing and the decorations are the same for a real cake as for a fake cake, so same raw materials cost.
2) the time to ice and decorate is the same for a real cake as for a fake cake, so same labor costs.
3) The cost of the styrofoam dummy, and while it can be re-used, it does go thru "wear and tear" and has to be replaced at some point.
4) For cake-only, I do that as a drop-n-run and try to use all disposables. With the styrofoam base, I am required to return to the reception site to pick up the equipment (I don't want to have to depend on the bride or anyone to return them to me on time in case I need them for the following weekend). So add'l gas and labor costs.
Stephen Benison makes the molds for scrolls. Go to www.globalsugarart.com. I can't find his book right now. but if you need further help P.M. Me.
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