i'm doing a wedding cake 14/12/10/8. i found a site where i can buy 10-20lbs of fondant at a time. i was wondering if anyone knew how much i should get. i'm doing alternate layers ivory/chocolate colored fondant.
i was also wondering if straws were a good way to go for support. i'd like to get the sps but not sure if this is the project to do it, cost is already sky rocketing and it's for a friend.
I wish I could help you more, but I'm a little new to this myself.
for a cake that big I would probably use dowels, I've used straws, but only on smaller tiered cakes.
as for the fondant, I'm really not sure.....I like to make my own, the MMF.
sorry...I hope that someone else can give more help!
Hey there! Thought I'd chime in here. I buy my fondant in 20 lb. buckets direct from Satin Ice. If you keep the inner liner tied and the lid on tight, any excess fondant you have will last for quite some time!
For a four tier'd cake you'll need about 10-12lbs of fondant depending on how thick you roll it.
If you want to get away from spending $50.00 a bucket, try looking into a good recipe. I don't have time to make my own...and I go through a lot of fondant each month...so buying it just makes more sense for me.
And straws for support is a no go. They're not strong enough to hold up layers. Go with wooden dowls or the plastic ones. But definitely not straws.
Hope this helps!!!
If you go to Wilton's amounts it gives you the recommended amounts
hope this helps.
http://www.wilton.com/wedding/makecake/fondant/fondantamounts.cfm
Good Luck.
Try Toba Garret's recipe. I did and we loved it! (It melts in your mouth and flavors very easily with oils or extracts.)
I then made several batches for our DD's 5-tier sweet 16 cake. I used the Wilton chart and ended up with three extra batches. I put them into the freezer for use on my days off. (I think Wilton pads the numbers to get you to buy more fondant!)
Not to mention it was easy to do. My mom helped out by kneading in the last bit of sugar until the fondant wasn't sticky, but I used my KA with a dough hook to get the first 2 lbs of sugar in. (I developed a pinched nerve in my back the week before the party! 
) Between the two of us, 8 batches of fondant went by very quickly and saved me well over $50 over the cost of buying Satin Ice or more if I'd have gone with the Choco-pan, which I'd been seriously considering.
When I stack my cakes, I use plates and push in pillars trimmed to the height of the cake tier. The trick is to have the plate resting on the tier below, without putting any weight on that tier. Works like a charm, and very, very stable!
thanks for everyone's replies. i usually make mmf myself, but for such a large project i thought it might be better if i used professional fondant. sometime when i'm making the mmf i get small lumps in it, i can usually knead them out but it takes time and muscle. i'm going to have to have a larger batch and thought it might be easier to buy, although the cost is high.
Do you sift your PS? That may be the source of your lumps. Try sifting in the food processor. That is what I did for the large number of batches. Works like a charm.
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