AHi everyone! I'm brand new here and love to bake and decorate, but I've never done a wedding cake. I'm doing the cake for my sisters boyfriends brothers fiancée (whew!) she wants a light pink and gray ombre ruffle cake, 1 tier only (going to make 4 layers though) she wants white chocolate raspberry cake...so my questions are these:

Is there a really delicious good raspberry filling I should use?

For the white chocolate cake I'm revamping a boxed white cake mix but is there specifically a good mix I should use?

Second of all the wedding is July 26th in Oregon (it's been running 90's - 100's here) and the wedding is outdoors! How do I keep the icing from melting/sweating/weeping? Will it?

And last what's the best way to get gray ombre color? I've heard dyes have green undertones you can see which I really don't want! Would mixing black fondant with white give me the clean gray I'm looking for?

And I'm also baking 160 cupcakes! Half chocolate and half white chocolate with raspberry filling!

I'm also looking for help on how far in advance should I bake the cake? And how should I store it?

Thank you!!!