Hello,

So my sister-in-law's brother wants me to make their wedding cake and they want the cake below. I will be making it in 3 tiers only to feed about 200 people so my cake sizes with be an 8" round on top, then a 12" round, then a 16" round and they will all be about 4" high.

So I've been looking around for some nice fake flowers and ofcourse I'll need a mixture of open, closed, and inbetween flowers to go around the cake. I think for them to buy sugar flowers is going to cost ALOT. So my question is can anyone please help me figure out how many flowers I will need roughly to do the spiral on this cake? I have no idea.. should I buy a few then try to measure around the cake?

Anyone who has more experience than me with this type of cake and throw out an estimate would be a huge help! I need to figure out how much this is going to cost too!

Thanks SO much in advance!

S.

I used over 60 flowers to make the one in my gallery and they just went down one side. It looks like that cake has at least 300 imo!

I used over 60 flowers to make the one in my gallery and they just went down one side. It looks like that cake has at least 300 imo!

Recently I had to "guess-ti-mate" the number of flowers on a tiered cake and this is the process I used.

Purchase enough flowers to make a section that is approximately 4-6" long. THEN, stack 4" high cake dummies (or empty pans) in the same configuration you will be using for your stacked cake. THEN, see how many of the 4-6" sections you will need.

I agree with the post above that it is probably in the 300-400 range.

If you have access to a wholesale buying license, leah_s recommends a wholesale supplier that provides excellent service and lovely gumpaste, pre-made flowers. That may be the best way to go.

http://www.avalondeco.com./
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As far as how much the cost will be for the cake and icing, that's a total guess. There are too many variables like the recipes you'll be using, your supply costs, etc. A guess? About $150+, but it could go much higher.

I don't think that avalon deco requires that you hold a resale license. I think that anyone can order. Anyway, call David. He has more flowers than are listed on the website. And say "hey!" from Leah in Louisville.

When I'm doing a cake with lots of detail, I cut out a wax paper or parchment strip that is the width and length of what I need to cover on the cake. Then I either use old flowers that I have on hand or the first new ones that I've made to fill a small area, or patch, on the strip. I can use this small patch to figure out how many patches I need to cover the whole strip and, therefore, how many of each kind of flower I will need to cover the entire strip. I usually figure about 10% more than what I calculate to allow for breakage, choice of particular type of flower, filling gaps, etc. I learned this from someone else on CC and it works great for me. I used to usually do way more flowers than I needed, just to be sure. Now I don't have to.

I think if every single member on Cake Central made you two flowers, you might have enough.

Off topic - but those cake dimension are going to be 16" wide and only 12" tall - kind of short and squat IMO and you wont be able to get a good spiral of flowers. For 200 guests, you could easily do a more narrow 4 or even 5 tier cake that will look more proportional and more like the photo. HTH

I agree with Kory. It needs more height, or it needs to be less wide at the base...