Hey Everyone,
I have a few questions mainly about the timeline for a wedding cake that I have due on the 20th. Most of my worrying is because I have to make a 6 hour drive to deliver the cake. The wedding is on Saturday and I was planning on driving through really late Thursday night into early Friday. Okay, so my main question would be about when to put the fondant on the cake. I usually decorate the day before the cake is due - but since I will be in a hotel then; I was planning on putting the fondant on during the day on Thursday - but I am worried about whether or not the fondant would still look okay on Saturday. Should I fill the cake and put the buttercream on the day before the fondant (I read the other day about letting the cake settle) - or the same day like I usually would? I was also planning on keeping the cake refrigerated (at the reception hall), and finishing the decorating a few hours before the reception on Saturday - does anyone think this could cause a problem? (I usually refrigerate my fondant cakes - but it is normally only the night before the party up until cake cutting time)
Also, I will be travelling with the cake unstacked - but I am worried about the fondant cracking or sagging because of the movement of the car- has anyone had any problems like this before?
Lastly, I was going to stack the cake on Saturday - do I need to leave it out of the fridge for a few hours before doing that - or can I just take it out and assemble it?

Okay, so I guess I had a few more questions than I realized - sorry the post is so long.

I appreciate any and all help,
Thanks in Advance,
Valerie.

I am not an expert, but I did a 7 tier wedding cake several weeks ago and I can tell you a few things that I experienced.

First, I started mixing and baking my cakes on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I filled and crumbcoated. Thursday we covered with fondant. Friday around lunch time packed the van and drove 2 1/2 hours to the city of the wedding. Carried all the tiers into the house, and Saturday morning I started preparing the SPS pillars for stacking, so I could finish the remainder of the decorating. What I found was that despite allowing the cake to settle, and individually packing each tier, I had a little more settling so that the very bottom edges of the fondant were broken or mashed. Ended up trimming up all the bottom edges and covering with white satin ribbon. Then finished the piping and stacked 2 tiers, another 2 tiers and then a 3 tier in the stacked wedding cake boxes I had transported the tiers in. Got to the reception site and got the cake stacked and left. Made it to the church with 5 minutes to spare.

I only refrigerated the cakes for a few hours after they were crumb coated and then a allowed to come to room temp before covering with fondant. After that, I didn't refigerate any of the cake.

I would travel with the tiers individually boxed. The rubberized shelf liner you can get at Walmart is great for keeping the cake boards from shifting. None of my cakes shifted, but as I said there was a little bottom damage, which I fixed and no one knew any different.

I know that I probably wrote a lot more in the thread I posted right after I got back home to the wedding. Here's the link - maybe there is something there that might help.

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-634002-.html.

Hope that helps Can't wait to see your cake photos, and most importantly - don't forget to have fun at the wedding

Hey ptanyer,
I remember seeing your cake when you posted it. I just wanted to say how beautiful it was - and I had the same reaction many people did when I saw it... "WOW!" It was huge & beautiful! Okay, so I will bring ribbon just in case my cake does the extra settling like yours (which you can not tell at all btw).

What about leaving the cakes in the fridge - does anyone think I will have any issues stacking and decorating right away - or should I leave it out of the fridge for a while first?

TIA,
Valerie.