I am doing my first wedding cake due this coming Saturday. I need some tips on when I should start baking and making my icings. I want everything to be fresh but I can't wait until thur or friday to bake b/c I also have a full time job. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I have not done a cake of this size yet and am a little nervous. It is 4 tiered square, 18", 14", 10" and 6". Needs to feed 300 people.

Also I have tried several white almond cake recipes but I am not sure which would be best, any good recipes for stacking?

First, let me say that now is not the time to be worrying about this. All of this should have been decided/practiced weeks ago.

Now, there is nothing wrong with baking on Tues/Wed for a saturday wedding, provided that the cakes are stored properly. I'd say get your icings made/colored today and make sure anything else that needs to be made in advance is done (flowers, figures etc). then you can bake on Tues, Fill/frost on wed, decorate thurs, stack on friday!

As far as recipes that are good for stacking, can't help you there. If you have a proper stacking method, you should be able to stack Jell-o. ( I think I'm gonna try that one day, just to see if I can do it!)

Im no expert and have never done a wedding cake, especially with layers that are over 14". NOW would be a good time to start baking. Once baked and cooled, torte the layers, separate with parchment, wrap in several layers of plastic wrap and freeze. OR Reduce the amount of batter in your pans, (weigh or mark pans to fill line you want) and you can avoid torting all together. With less batter, there won't be much leveling.

I would get all my baking done by Tuesday and have all my elements (flowers, figures) made by the same day. You can defrost & fill and crumbcoat on THursday. Cover and Stack on Friday. Will make for a less stressing Saturday.

As far as recipes...I would say WASC (original...made with egg whites). I use almond extract or buy some Lorann almond flavoring. Stacking...can't help you there but I would look at separator plates. Heck, you're way ahead of me...I would be stressing the delivery.