I am horrible at judging how long it will take me to accomplish a particular task...

Having said that, I am making my friend's wedding cake for Saturday, August 1st 2009. (Next Saturday!) Any assistance with developing a time line for completing this cake would be greatly appreciated. These are the details:

- Three stacked tiers: 12", 10", and 8".
- All three tiers are covered in marshmallow fondant. Cakes will have buttercream between the layers.
- Cake will have fondant hearts all around it...not flat, cut-out hearts, but rather ones I would roll out long, thin "tubes" of fondant and cut into sections to form the outline of a heart on the side of the cake...hope I explained that well enough for you to get the visual.
- Cake needs to be delivered to a site about a half hour away from me, and by 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.
- No topper or anything like that because the florist is adding fresh red roses to the top of the cake. (Do I need to do anything to the top tier in order to accommodate the fresh roses?)

I am all prepped with my SPS to stack and transport the cake!

Thank you all in advance for your advice and assistance with this project. I really want to make a cake that will please my friend and her family!

I'm horrible at judging also! but I try to do as much in advance as I can. Can you make the hearts now?

My timeline would be:

Mixing/Baking the six cakes - 3 hrs (my oven has issues if i use more than one shelf)
Making BC/cleanup - 1 hr
Making MMF - I dunno - I gave up on this long ago! But you probably need three batches? 1.5 hrs?
Levelling, torting, filling, crumbcoating - 1 hr
Icing & fondanting - 1.5 hrs
Stacking, decorating & cleanup - 2 hrs

So, I'd give myself 10 hrs. total not including cooling time. Then I would add 2 hrs for good measure!

That said, I work fulltime, so I would spread it out over a few days - bake Thursday evening (if not earlier in the week in which case I'd freeze) & make icing while baking, Friday morning fill & crumbcoat, Friday evening ice & fondant, Saturday morning stack & decorate. I love SPS!!

I'd be interested in hearing how others would do this - it seems I'm always underestimating things, or things go wrong that I don't expect!

I tend to make sure all of my bases are covered before I begin. Nothing is worse than having to stop your work and run out to the store for a forgotten ingredient or a replacement something.

Here's what I'd do:

Monday-- take inventory of what you NEED vs. what you already HAVE. This includes what you will need for the cake itself as well as items needed for the PROCESS. Make a list of those things you need. Organize everything so that it is readily available to you.

Tuesday-- shop for all ingredients & needed items.

Wednesday--Make marshmallow fondant, dye if necessary. Store in an AIRTIGHT container or vaccumm seal bag. Make BC, store in an AIRTIGHT container & refrig.

Thursday evening-- bake all layers, allow to cool in pan. Cover with saran wrap and store in oven (turned OFF and cooled) overnight.

Friday morning-- take bc out of fridge, allow to come to room temp.

Friday afternoon-- turn out cakes onto cardboard circles. Follow this process for each tier-- level, torte, fill, ice with bc, cover with fondant. Proceed to trim cardboard circles so that they don't show, apply support system, & stack. Decorate for the remainder of Friday afternoon/evening. Try to leave as LITTLE as possible for saturday morning.

For a 4:30 delivery I would be packed up and DRIVING by 3:15, 3:30 the absolute latest. You have to figure in time not only for the 1/2 hr ride, but also possible traffic, time to park, time to find the right hall, time to corral someone for payment, set up, etc...

HTH and GOOD LUCK!

You could make the MMF today if you wanted to. Just rub crisco all over it, saran wrap it, ziplock bag it, and put it in a big tub or something that you can seal.

Wow, thank you for the replies! This will help me a lot!!! I am going to try to bake a tier a night throughout the week, freezing them til Friday morning. I work full time, and part time, so this will definitely help me out. Cupcakeco - thanks for the awesome tip on taking inventory! I will definitely do that tonight!

Oh, I just realized I double-posted this topic...my computer was acting screwy Saturday when I made the original topic post...