i want to make my first 3 tier cake for my daughters birthday. i was thinking about purchasing a 10in 4in, 8in 4in, and 6in 4in round bakeware.
is the baking time different for 4 in deep dish. should i just purchase thinner bakeware? also, do i need to put cardboard in between each tier or will dowels do well? when do i apply the fondant on the cake, before or after stacking? thanks in advance.
Actually I have never seen 4 inch deep pans but I am sure they require more cooking time. You can do well with either 2 inch deep pans or the three inch deep. Two 2 inch pans will yield a 4 inch high cake. Yes, you will need a support system between the tiers. As this is your first tiered cake, I recommend using dowels and you can find information on that on the Wilton site. Each tier will be placed on a cardboard base also. Fondant is applied before stacking. Let your baked cakes cool and then chill them- I freeze mine. Level your tiers and if you want you can split them so you can have more layers of filling. Ice the filled and leveled cake and then chill again. Then apply your fondant to each tier. These are really very basic directions. It would be helpful for you to go to the Wilton site or look at a decorating book for some visuals to help you out. Good luck!
Hey! Here are my two cents even though pugmama1 has already given some great advice. I always put each tier on its own cake round (when I first started out, I just cut out circles from clean pizza boxes or clean cardboard boxes). After I've covered all of the tiers in fondant, I place the bottom tier on the cake base or cake stand that I want the whole cake to sit on (this eliminates the problem of moving a heavy stacked cake). Then, I use regular sized straws as supports in between the cakes. All I do is stick 5 or 6 straws evenly spaced inside the bottom tier and just snip off the tops that stick out. I add a dab of buttercream over the straws and then place the next cake on top of it. I've made a 6-tier cake using straws and haven't had a problem yet! Plus, they are SUPER cheap (can't get cheaper than straws!). Finally, I drive a thin wooden dowel down through all three cakes.
As for the cake pans, I only use 3-inch cake pans now. I find that the 4-inch ones don't seem to bake as evenly and the 3-inch pans (when filled 2/3 of the way up) come out perfectly to slice in half. The 2-inch pans always seem to go too high and I end up wasting a lot of cake.
Phew! I hope that helps! 
good luck, you can do it!
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