lol so not to be on the dramatic side...but Ive just gotten the BIGGEST cake order I've ever had to date...

400+ people for a Quinceañera!!!! the biggest ive ever had was 250 and that cake was HUGE!

now, the mother of this little girl is very important to me and its a big deal to her that I make the cake...geeez. now all she said was that she likes purple and the party is a "phantom of the opera" theme. problem is...im not sure what sizes I would need to serve 400 people without the cake being too heavy to sit during the ceremony (i guest im just worried that with BIG tiers, it may be to heavy for itself but who knows). would i be better off doing multiple cakes or just using a cake stand with a bunch of cakes on it? thats not really what she wants but i dont know if i want to chance the cake supports not holding and this giant cake crashing down lol

Would she be ok with you making a large sized cake that you are comfortable with, and maybe another cake on the side, or a tier of cupcakes?

With proper dowels for support it should be ok.

I have seen some HUGE cakes, The stability of it, is all in the way that you have it supported.

I agree with MessMaker. If you have enough support you will be ok.

I personally would make a 4 or five tier cake and then have sheet cakes to serve from as well.

sounds like you should invest in Leah's SPS system

I have no advice for you but in several instances I am 100% SURE that I had my very own personal cake angels watching over me. I'll send them your way!

Thats one huge cake!! Def...use SPS for this cake. If you use a good support system this cake will be fine. I'm just thinking how many people are going to be at this quinceanera?? I would get clarification from her as the number of exact servings she really needs. Just because she invited 400 guests doesnt mean 1) everyone will show up and 2) everyone will eat cake.

And the important thing to remember when making tiered cakes is that all that matters is your support system. Doesnt matter how big or small you need a cake for....if you have a good support system (SPS) you will be fine

Good luck!!

If I found myself in your position, I would pm ramacake for advice. Look for her photos on CC. She makes huge tiered cakes for gigantic weddings. I'll bet she could give you some advice on the support system and the sizes of the tiers you will need.

Wow! That's a whole lotta cake! How about a tiered cake with satalite cakes around it?

This person made a phantom of the opera cake. It was 16", 14", 12", 10" and 8". I don't know much about calculating if that will be enough and how to do it! Just putting it here for an idea. These parties are really getting too huge!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mycakeswithlove/4738623257/in/photostream/

A few comments...

You can get more servings from square cakes than rounds. You may want to consider squares.

Just make sure your base is strong enough to hold the stacked cake. I had my DH build a wooden cake base for me for one of my large stacked cakes. We made sure it had a space to get fingers underneath as well (easier to pick up). I also saw a cake show where they had a nice silver round base with 4 small feet and the feet bent under the weight of the cake.

Consider one large stacked cake with two small side cakes. (similar to one of the wedding cakes in my photos.) This cake would have fed close to 500 people but the two smaller tiers are dummy cakes because we didn't need that much cake.

I have only used Wilton separator plates and pillars but I would definitely use these or SPS.

Good luck, that's a BIG cake!

Just a thought...why couldn't you do one really nice tiered cake, and then do the old sheet cake back in the kitchen trick to get all the servings you needed? 2 full sheets should feed about 200 people, right?

Just a thought, not necessarily a good one.

Definitely use SPS.

Definitely don't do sheet cakes.

I did a big wedding cake that served 520. I hate, hate, hate square cakes so it was mostly rounds - except for the bottom tier. I used a 16" square, then butted 4, 12" half rounds up to each side, creating a sort of petal shape. Pretty and that bottom tier alone fed nearly 200 I think. You might not have to go that large, but think about shapes creatively and you'll produce a shape no one has seen before.

You could do a set up similar to one in Collette Peters Wedding Cakes book that has multiple sizes and heights, but not all on top of one cake. http://www.colettescakes.com/book_wed_cc.html#