Hi guys, I need to make a dhol cake similar to the one below for my brother's upcoming pre-wedding celebrations. I'm so nervous since this will be my first novelty cake, I'd appreciate it if someone could please help me on how I should go on about this cake? I need it for 25-30 people. I was thinking four 9 x 2 in cakes, and should I use small cakes for the side or just carve the ends? I've never carved before, so any tips and tricks for carving? Sorry for the long post, but as nervous as I may be, I really want to make this cake. 

I believe I would do this drum standing instead of lying on its side and construct it like a double barrel tier with a cake board separating the two halves.  Starting at the bottom, one six inch layer, three 8 inch layers - cake board - three 8 inch layers, one 6 inch layer OR just use 8" (or 9") for all layers.  To carve, you can print out a picture the actual size of the cake, cut it out and hold it up to the layers as a guide.

Don't forget to use dowels or bubble tea straws for supports in the bottom half of the cake.  It will be much easier to carve if it is partially frozen.  Carving is a lot easier than you might think, just scary at first.  Good luck, you got this!

You need to think about how long the cake has to be too. If it's gonna be 9" high, it'll have to be about 15 to 16" long to make it look proportional. That's a lot of cake! I'd think about 8" by 12" or even smaller. So you'd need 6 2" layers. 4 8" in the middle and a 6" on each side.

Stack them up vertically before you fill them and cut off a small section on one side just so there's a flat surface for the cake to rest on when you turn it horizontal. Now fill it and line it up horizontally. Now you decide where you want the taper to begin. Mark a vertical line around the whole cake where you want to start tapering, on both the left and right. Line up your knife from the outer edge of the 6" to your line and carve.

You can also carve this in parts to give it more of a curve. So carve the outer 2 inches at a steeper angle, then a bit less for the next 2" and so on. Then refine your shape with the crumbcoat and go on from there.

I've also seen people fill it vertically and then turn it on its side. Also seen people use the same size cake throughout and use a smaller cardboard circle to mark the size of the edge and then carve. Whatever is easier for you.

Now I have a question: how do you serve a cake like that with sideways layers??