Another Crazy Question ~ Put Your Thinking Caps On!!!!
Baking By mrsmac888 Updated 6 Sep 2021 , 1:49pm by -K8memphis
Oh my gosh! Get this one! I have a customer that wants me to make a HUGE cake. She wants a 5 tier cake. From the top down:
Top tier - 9"
2nd tier - 17"
3rd tier - 25"
4th tier - 33" This one is a dummy
5th tier - 41" This one is a dummy
She wants each tier to be 6 to 7" in height.
All covered in fondant. Is this even possible???? How do you make a 25" round cake? Piece them together?
I'm pretty sure I have the Styrofoam two tiers covered. It's the biggest cake that has me concerned.
Thanks for any input!
Christina ~ The official crazy one!
for one thing -- i would want to use a 2" or 3" foam slice under each of the 9", 17", and 25" so i could just bake regular height tiers --
by the time you get it on a cake board it won't fit through some doorways -- but i got a fix for that --
i'm waiting for my ride -- will be back shortly --
K8,
Yes, these would be round cakes. I'm doing this for a function at our church. They have a large kitchen close to where this cake will be set up. It's actually going to be outside under a tent in October. I plan on taking all the "parts" and setting it up there. It will be covered in fondant and a simple bouquet of flowers on the top tier that will cascade down the side of the cake.
I love your idea of each cake being on a foam round!
I have seen 1/2 round pans for larger size tiers, like the moon when it is half full. The two halfs are pushed together to create one large round tier. I believe they are designed to be used in our smaller, home ovens. I saw them at Sweet City in Nashville a couple of years ago. They have a website, if you want to check.
Some 30years ago i actually had 16” 1/2 round pan. (Maybe a 14”er too) Maybe it was just the one I got but it didn’t make a round when 2 1/2s were put together….more oval:(. Needed a 2” strip in the center to make it round.
Can’t imagine rolling out fondant much less handling it large enough to drape over a 25”x12”-14” cake! Perhaps if one had a sheeter but working in a church kitchen—yikes.
Oh my goodness, I didn't even think about rolling out the fondant! I would not have a space anywhere near big enough to roll out the fondant.
the 41" cake at 7" tall would need a minimum 55" circle of fondant to cover it -- you'll just have to piece it together and cleverly cover the joins with impressive decor :) or use buttercream -- i'd insist on buttercream meself -- or use candy clay, chocolate clay, modeling chocolate whatever we call it these days --so you can smooth out the joins -- staggering size!!! gaghhh
for the 25 -- i'd bake off sheet cakes --
the 41 with a board will be about four feet wide -- will the doors be wide enough for that? your house and car doors? since it's foam you can wobble it -- but the 25 has to fit in a vehicle too?
what i always did for extra large tiers is set them on same size boards then carry in the plateau separately -- or whatever -- if you have to stack them -- you just gotta package them carefully so you can get under them to pick them up --
glory! i think i'd be booked that week...month 
Thank you all for talking this out with me. The church kitchen is really big almost industrial sized. Big double doors from the kitchen to an auditorium then double doors to the outside where the cake will be. I've asked another baker in my area to help with this large project. I think we can do it! I'm going with the idea that we'll bake sheet cakes and piece them together for the 25" cake. My husband is going to get me foam for the bottom two tiers and cut them to size. He has a company with the means to cut them very nicely. Thank goodness for that. Yes, rolling out the fondant is going to be interesting, but think if I do it in pieces, it will work. I'll cover the verticals of the rounds in one piece and then cover the 4" edge with another piece, not placing fondant in the middle where the next cake up sits. That will save me on some of the fondant amount needed. Oh, and I'll pray a lot that this works!!! LOL
Wow mrsmac888….this is a huge undertaking!!! I’m glad you’re getting another bakers help. I bought a large set of Wilton cake pans for my nieces wedding. The bottom pan being the largest was 14” x 2”. I literally used it ONCE. For that wedding, and not since. That was 15 years ago!! Personally I think you’re numbers are off, and the placement/look will be off.
Top tier - 9"
2nd tier - 17"
3rd tier - 25"
4th tier - 33" This one is a dummy
5th tier - 41" This one is a dummy
She wants each tier to be 6 to 7" in height.
A 9” on top of a 17” is going to look so out of proportion.
Me personally, I would do
Top tier 10”
2nd tier 12”
3rd tier 14”
Making taller is easy once filled with buttercream.
bottom dummies 20” and 25”.
This will display nicely. And I would bake several slab cakes and ice to have in the kitchen to cut up and serve as extra.
so they went from tiers that were 7" tall to 4"? great!!
K8 ~ Um, no. They will be 6" tall. Ugh!
So, As I continue to question myself and "how to", I'll just keep asking ya'll for confirmation on my thoughts.
The fondant. Should I make it myself or just buy a boatload of it? If I buy it, do you have a suggested fondant that is better to work with? I don't do a lot of fondant work, so I really don't know which ones are better or larger applications.
Can the dummy cakes be covered in fondant well ahead of the time that I need them? Can they just sit in my dining room table till I need them?
Thanks!
I make 99% of my own fondant, using Liz Marek's LMF recipe (can be found on her site, Sugar Geek Show). Yes, you can go ahead and cover the dummy tiers. I would cover them lightly to keep out the light and dust, but on the table, at room temp, is fine.
I thought a lot about those sizes as June mentioned. The sizes mrsmac888 posted are so out of order I couldn’t imagine how it will look. I’m sure a close look could be made up using easily obtained pans. It might mean adding an extra tier or 2 but would be nicer to the eye.
lynne, the tiers are 8" apart in size from each other -- so there's a four inch ledge around each one -- idk -- I think it will look exaggerated but pretty cool --
I would so way Buy my fondant! glory hallelujah -- yes, that'll be a boatload, no, a barge full of it to make -- I mostly used satin ice -- that's just me --
I would suggest using at least a 49" board under the bottom tier for a unified look --
I would also cheat on the decor so I could use different pieces of fondant to cover it -- and I would advise them of this as well of course -- like roll out a pale green snake that will lay in the join to cover it up then disguise it as a flower stem -- make the join as stem+y as possible -- add leaves, tendrils and a flower but it can be understated so the cascade can still be the star of the show --
but if I was doing this, I would piece together the fondant on that poppa bear tier and the momma bear too -- I mean even the 25" tier at 7" tall needs an over four feet big circle of fondant rolled out -- oh my achin' back! I have a 48" round table -- and it is just about doable to get it rolled out on there -- if you hop around & around the table --
picking up a slice of fondant that large is gonna take maybe having rolled it out on a big plastic sheet underneath and rolling it around a five foot long pole -- probably will need some assistance unless you piece it together -- I would need help --
you probably already know this but while I'm on the subject -- my favorite way to join fondant is to overlap the two pieces and cut through both, using scissprs or a knife or razor blade -- remove the excess and smooth out --
so I would design some white on white decor -- snails tail trails over the joins -- and you could play with the cuts -- either make them look like puzzle pieces or wagon wheel equidistant lines like pie wedges or in sections like stadium sections --
another thought to covet joins is to use several narrower cascades
Understand K8. I was thinking more about the top being 9” but now that y pointed out the overall size it might not be so bad. I haven’t made fondant yet … but it sure would be a ton of work! Buy it for sure. I use Wilton fondant but add flavoring. It’s been sooo long since I’ve used any other I don’t remember how different the brands were.
lynne, yeah wilton's is good -- remember when they used some flukey ingredients and it smelled so bad? glad they got that cleared up!
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