A friend has ask me, a woman who has never baked a wedding cake to bake her cake. What I need to know is how do I create a three tier cake that appears to be one cake sitting directly on top of the other? I need to know the best size pans to use. This is suppose to serve 60 people, give or take. I am so new to this. PLEEEESE give me all the help you can. I saw something in a thread about foamcore, what is that? I wouldn't be trusting me with this special task, but she says I need to start somewhere. I really want to do a good job since she has entrusted me with such a precious jewel. HEEEELLLLP!!!! 
Hello, I know the stress you must be under. That would be a daunting task if I'd never done one before. I wasn't able to see any of your work (no pics. posted?) so I can't tell what your ability level is...If you've done many cakes prior, have experience stacking cakes and have taken "some" classes, then I think you could do it. As long as her design was simple.
If you haven't done many cakes, I'd be honest and tell her you don't think you are up to such a task yet. I would hate to attempt it and have it not turn out.
She must think you do great work in order to ask you to do that?
I have to agree with sweetcakes23..soo sorry,,but for a wedding,,this cake needs to be ALMOST perfect,,otherwise,,I'd hate for you to disappoint her if something really goes wrong..weddings are a BIG day and if this cake were for a shower or birthday..Ok..do it,,but a wedding is a different whole ball game..
THe only advice for you, if you want to do this,,is to watch A LOT of "youtube" videos on how to stack wedding cakes OR invest in some of the basic books by wilton or DVD's by sugarcraft or something along that sort because you really need to watch this visually and go step to step..
If you have time even,,maybe do a practice cake on dummies or something..otherwise you will have your hands very busy and full with much time needed to learn a lot.
Best of luck and don't forget to post cake if you do it..I know the temptation of you wanting to do this badly,,but sweetie,,this is a wedding cake..it's a BIG deal and I'm not saying you can't do it,,but you really need to practice or something prior if you can.
I did my daughters birthday cake this year and it was a 3 teir cake and let me tell you it was the hardest thing I have ever done, im not trying to scare you but if you have time I would practice practice and then practice some more, make 3 teir cakes and give them away if you have to. you can search the forums and gets tons of tips and tricks, hth
Wedding cakes are not an average cake. They really do have to be perfect. Not to be disrespectful, but the questions you're asking indicate that you must not have the kind of experience needed to do this task. Yes, I know we all have to start somewhere, but you don't generally start with a *wedding cake*.
Thanks for all of the advice and I passed this advice on to my friend and she still wants me to do it. I don't have pics of any of my previous work because I just generally bake for fun. I'm really good with sheet cakes, so I've been told, me personally think I'm just average and this is why I don't do it for a living.
I think if your friend trusts you do make her wedding cake and you feel comfortable with it then go for it! No better way to try. Your friend is aware that you are not a professional and must not be too fussy about what she gets. Research on line and use the forum pages and you should be fine. Have Fun! You could even try a sample cake ahead, make it small or even just to a tier so you know what you are getting yourself into.
How about three tiers not stacked on top of each other. Each cake has it's own plate and each plate has a support under it to raise it to different heights. That way you just have to bake three cakes and decorate each one seperately.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/toad_hill/5520325636/in/photostream/
You could use cans to create the different heights for each cake plate and then drape a soft fabric like crepe de chine over the cans to hide the sub structure. Or you could invest in the cake plate system like this- http://cgi.ebay.com/3-TIER-CASCADE-WEDDING-CAKE-STAND-STANDS-/150509028909?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230b09862d
I thin Narie has a great idea! We actually did this for our wedding. We had a very limited budget so I ordered three different sized cakes and used plastic buckets covered in material at different heights on the table and then set the cakes on it. Look nice 
If you live close to a Flower Factory they have the Splendor wedding cake stand that is sold on ebay that was posted by Narie. You buy them by the piece. The tube that hold the cake plates come in different sizes or you can cut them to size you need. That's where I get the ones I use. mine.
I think anyone who titles a thread "wedding cake HELP!!!" and who's opening post basically says she has no idea how to make a wedding cake, should tell the bride that "despite your confidence in me and willingness to let me take this on, I have to refuse as I really don't know how to do this. For both of our sakes, please find someone else." Just because she is insistent that you do it, doesn't mean you have to.
You don't start with wedding cakes, you end with them. This is a recipe for stress, disaster, disappointment and hurt feelings all around.
Well.. contridicting almost all of the above comments.. I say if you have the time, money, patience and most of all CONFIDENCE in your abilities.. I too say go for it. If you check out my photos.. you will see my first fondant cake was a single cake (round with love heart pattern)... from that cake my girlfriend asked me to make her wedding cake - I had about 5 weeks to get my act together and practice my booty off! I made her hen's cake (in the male anatomy naughty section!) so as I could practice my ganaching and stacking. I googled and youtubed every darn tutorial I could find on stacking, covering, rolling fondant, crumb coating etc.. basically until my eyes burnt from the screen lol. You will see in my photos the 3 tier wedding cake with the gumpaste sugar lilies.. that is my first 3 tier stacked cake and my first wedding cake, and my first attempt at gumpaste flowers.. It was basically my 2nd 'professional' type of cake I guess you would say. NOTE: I'm only pointing out my pics to help you realise that you CAN do it if you really have the confidence in your ability.. I took a real "I CAN DO APPROACH".. I also had no plans on charging her for the cake though lol.. it was my wedding gift. Be aware though.. it's going to cost a wack load.. and you need to be confident and practice prior to making the all important cake. As previous posters have stressed - a wedding is a VERY important occasion.. most of us only ever have the one chance at it 
Good luck.. I'm sure we'll all be there to help you out 
Good luck with it! My advice if you can afford to do a practise cake, you could use cheap packet cakes. Also google sts stacking system.
How are you trying to upload it? You can do it one of two ways -
You can upload it to your gallery by clicking on "My photos" on the left hand side of the screen. There should be a small "upload photo" on the upper portion of the screen at that point. Once you click upload, it will allow you to select the photo. Once it's uploaded to your gallery, you can post a link here.
Otherwise, you can upload it to a photo-sharing site, like www.photobucket.com . Then, you can use the img code to add the photo here - it will look something like [ img]whatever your photo is named[/img] without the spaces.
Good luck!
I would love to see your finished picture.
If you want I can post it for you, if you email it to me: [email protected]
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