I'm making a 5 teir wedding cake this month (14/12/10/8/6), all buttercream. I plan on crumbcoating the night before I decorate. How much icing do you think I should need? Should I make it one double-batch at a time (I have only a 4.5 qt mixer)?? Should I plan on making several batches and putting it into some sort of giant trough? lol! It will be ivory so I'm concerned about the color being consistent. Also, and advice on getting a really pretty ivory color? I was planning on using evaporated milk and regular vanilla to get the color. I concered this might look too brown?... I've made it that way before but my eyes start to go color blind after over analyzing it This is a picture of the cake I am trying to copy (just the base color, not the darker piping). Any tips would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks

I'm a cake mix baker and I usually figure 4 bags (8 lbs) of p.sugar for every 7 cake mixes. A 6/8/10/12/14 cake would be about 12 mixes so about 6, maybe 7 bags of p.sugar (14 lbs). This is all variable on how thick you apply your icing, what other BC decors you're adding, etc. I never worry about having too much or too little. If I run out, I make another batch. If I have too much, it stores on my counter just fine until the next cake.

It's always best to make up your icing ahead of time instead of making a batch ... ice some cake ... make a batch .. ice some cake. I also use the brown vanilla to make ivory and it works fine. When you make multiple batches and then throw each batch in a large container (large tupperware or rubbermaid container, for example), then you can take a big spoon or spatula and blend it all together, making one uniform color. (you can also run a hand-held mixer thru it just to blend the color.)

Be sure the bride is aware that color match is not an exact science when dealing with icing. I'd tell my brides, "Ivory, beige, off-white, cream, eggshell, champaign, fleshtone ... it's all the same to me."

My BC is always an ivory color, because I use the regular vanilla and real butter, like deb said, the color is not exact science.........

I have a 4 tier wedding cake in my photos that is ivory and I only had a 4.5 qt mixer at the time. I used sugarshackes recipe (in my 4.5 qt) and added 9 drops of ivory color to each batch. I actually stored it in an empty 20lb satin ice bucket. It was the perfect ivory color and was consistent throughout. hth!

My BC is different than what you make, but I also store multiple batches in left over 20 lb fondant buckets... LOL. It works great. They are air tight and I just pop them in the fridge if I am storing it for more than a day, but I use SMBC so I don't like to leave it out at room temp for storage.

For the ivory, I would make a small test batch and color it a little bit lighter than what you need it to be and let it sit overnight. Colors tend to darken overnight. Record how much you added and do that for every batch and they will all be the same color.

Thanks for the help everyone!!!! You all are the best!