Hi everyone.

I am a hobby baker. A friend from my mom's work has asked me to make a cake for her. She wants 3 tiers. I have only ever done single tiers. Could you give me some basic direction as to where to start? I have a madeira cake recipe which is very stable so I am sure it can hold weight. 

The other thing is she wants to serve 60  people. What size cakes should I use? 

Finally, it is due next Saturday. I work all day so only have limited time in the evening. When could I make the cakes and start icing and decorating? A timeline type of help here. 

Thank you so much everyone!!

I am a newbie (6 months in) as well.  When I stack my cakes I use the fat straws and cut them to height.  One in the center and usually 4 or 5 fat straws about 3 inches away from the center, then place the cake on-top.  Then on the very top layer I use a thin dowel or skewer (the height of the entire cake) and go straight down the center of all the layers, this way the layers won't move around and it gives you more stability.  I hope that helps.

I know that when I first started doing this I was surprised at just how heavy cakes got.  Make sure you use a sturdy cake base,

Best of Luck.

Here is attached a picture to show you the serving size for you cakes. I would use wooden dowel ($2 for 10 long dowels from walmart)  as few customers don;t like plastic straws in their cakes. Like ministine619 said I too prefer to insert a regular skewer in the middle of the top tier of cake pushed all the way to the bottom for better stability & no slipping while moving. 

For next saturday, I would start making any decorations from today & would bake my cake on Thursday night and freeze it wrapped in clear wrap. Would take it out early in the morning to give it few hours to thaw and come back to room tempreture before I ganache or frost my cake. Once I am back from my office in the eveing I would cover it with fondant and decorate it. So it's ready for saturday morning delivery.

if using fondant you can cover and wrap them in clear plastic wrap and place in a box in the fridge then let it come to room temp in a cool place before you ensemble and finish any further décor just make sure you don't leave it under a fan or heated area or it will dry the fondant out...   :)

3 tiers for only 60 servings is going to be a difficult cake to deliver and impossible for a person who does not know how to transport cakes to pick up.    What sized pans do you have or are you going to have to purchase new ones for this request.  Have you considered how much you are going to charge for this?  That many servings should be *at least* $175 IF NOT MORE.

What you might want to consider is making 3 6" tiers for the base then an 8" on top of those finished off w/a 4 or 6"er.  That should be just about right for 60 servings and will give a much more stable cake for transporting.

You can start right now to bake and put them well wrapped in the freezer.  The day before you want to finish/decorate the cake take them out of the fzr.  You can put them in the frig or leave on the counter so they are thawed when you want to work on them.  Don't know what kind of icing you are going to use but you can probably make that now also and keep it in the frig.  If using fondant, you don't need to frig it.  I suggest decorating it no later than Friday evening - maybe even start working on it Thursday.  Once covered with icing it can sit on the counter until completion.