I have my first wedding cake coming up in March - it is completely nontraditional and should be fun! The bride is very clear on what she wants and what she wants is a five tier square wedding cake with the tiers stack in a spiral-type formation. She doesn't need that much cake, she just wants that much cake. Anyway, I am trying to figure out the best sizes for these tiers and hoped I could get some advice from all of you wonderful CCers! I need at least a 6" on top, as she has two action figures plus a plaque that need to go up there ( and that will be a whole 'nother post, LOL).

Thank you for taking the time to help.

Blessings!

Before we can give advice on sizes, you need to know the serving goal. If she's having a 5-tier cake with only 32 guests, an 8" square is the logical choice and the other size choices won't matter much if they're styrofoam dummies.

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm

That is why I said that it is way more cake than she needs but this is what she wants. She knows there will be way too much cake but she doesn't care. She wants 5 tiers of cake, 5 different flavors ... no matter what I need to do to get it for her. (The cake is her gift from her father and is (and I quote) "THE most important part of the entire wedding! I can fall and break my leg walking down the aisle and I won't care, as long as my cake looks amazing" So serving amounts don't really matter in this case, lol. I guess I really just wanted to know if 14-12-10-8-6 would look ok in the spiral pattern or if there were other options/sizes that would look better. She does have these little 1.5" - 2" gargoyles that I have to place around on the different tiers ....

Anyway, I just thought I'd ask on here before giving her a definitive price quote.

Thanks.

Sure, there are other options... a 6-7-8-9-10 serves 18-24-32-40-50=140, but will that be enough? (I hope you receive a minimum serving goal from them.)

With the spiral setup, you'll still have ledges for the gargoyles.

Take out your pans and stack them up in the sprial fashion to get an idea of what to use.
Lacking pans (just now) cut out pieces of paper or use cake boards to get an idea of sizes needed.
............really just wanted to know if 14-12-10-8-6 would look ok in the spiral pattern ........
I think this is very good.
You might try to talk them into using a styro dummy for the largest size.

That's going to be one heavy cake! Will you be able to stack at the reception site at all? I hope so for your sake!

you might try looking at this: http://shinymetalobjects.net/cake/calculator/cakulator.cgi?option=2&option=Select+Cakulator

Because what you originally want to do will serve 270 people. That's a lot of cake!

Thank you, everyone!

Yes, it is going to be a lot of cake! I did try to tell the bride that and she cut me off and said she didn't care, this is what she wanted and then proceeded to explain which 5 flavors she wanted. I am meeting with the MOB later this week to sign contract and get 50% .... i may try and discuss the bottom tier perhaps being a dummy, but I really don't think this bride will go for that!

My plan is to stack the first two layers and then assemble the rest at the venue...

The bride wants the largest, bottom tier to be carrot cake with raisins, specifically - then yellow cake, then orange cake, then white cake, then strawberry cake. It's going to be a very interesting wedding, this is for sure!

CWR41 ~ I'm sorry, I originally misread your first comment. I understand now what you were saying. I believe they've invited, at maximum, 150 people. I told the bride she would have a lot more cake and she just laughed and said she didn't want those wimpy wedding servings anyway, that when they eat cake they want CAKE! Whatever floats her boat and fits Daddy's wallet, I guess....

Thank you again, everyone, for your responses! I don't have but two square pans so I have to order more - now I have a better idea of what to get!

Blessings,

Sandra

........example, Eight 6" squares to push together and stack for the 12" square............

I totally understand the point you are trying to get across but really, in the long run, she would be better off buying a 12" pan or would need more than 2 6"ers. Can you imagine the time and utilities it would take to bake *eight* 6" cakes when one can bake up one 12? I say the investment in a new pan will pay off big time in the future

I think the sizes you mentioned would be beautiful in a spiral. Good luck on your cake!

Just want to remind the OP that cooking in a 12" cake pan will require some sort of core, or flower nails or perhaps baking strips to get it to cook evenly!