HI everybody,

I'm getting ready to make my first tiered cake for my nephew's 1st birthday.
I have a couple of questions that I hope I can get answered here! Thank you so much for your time!

Start at the beginning: I making two tiers of three layers each, one 9' and one 12'.

Batter question: I only have one 12' pan, and will have to bake each layer one a time,
Q.1 so as long as my cake recipe does not contain baking powder/soda can I make the batter and refrigerate it while each layer bakes?

After baking I'll wrap each layer in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Once I'm ready to crumb coat and stack...
Q.2, Do I need to wait for the cake to be at room temperature or can I do it right away?

After crumb coating, Q.3 I should weight the tier down so the layers can settle, right?
Q.4 And if yes for how long?
Q.5 Should I leave it in the refrigerator since it'll have a fruit filling and the crumb coating needs to firm up?

I don't care for fondant so I'll cover the cake with modeling chocolate, Q.6 is this a bad idea since it's my first cake?

After I cover the cake with modeling chocolate, Q.7 should I refrigerate again?

And finally, I should insert dowels and cake board (for 2nd tier) but wait to stack on site, right?

You can freeze or refrigerate any kind of batter whether it has baking soda or powder in it or not. It cooks up quite nicely. I would go ahead and invest in at least one more 12 inch pan. Even if you have to bake the layers separately you'll be able to clean the first one for the 3rd layer while you put the second one in the oven.

Do NOT refrigerate your layers...FREEZE them. Wrap each cooled layer tightly in cling wrap and freeze until needed.
I don't thaw. I fill and crumb coat the cakes while they're frozen. (actually they thaw pretty quickly so I rarely have a frozen cake after filling & crumb coating).

Make sure you put a thick dam of buttercream around to keep your fruit filling in. If it's fresh fruit it will bleed. In fact it would be best to put a thin layer of BC on your cake layers to seal them so the fruit won't seep into the cake.

I've never really had 'settling' issues. After I fill and crumbcoat I put in the refrigerator to set before frosting. If you're using a butter based BC coating, it will harden nicely. If, after it's been in the fridge you DO notice some settling, just smooth it and put back in the fridge to set some more.

I don't cover cakes with fondant or modeling chocolate. If you haven't done either, I would suggest you just use buttercream.

If you are only doing a 2 tier, there's no need to wait to stack after doweling unless you just want to. Make sure you have a glob of buttercream on the top of your cake to set the 2nd tier down on so it won't slide.

I always keep my cakes in the refrigerator until delivery...and I deliver at least an hour before an event starts so the cake will come to room temp slowly. Cakes that are cold seem to handle delivery much better. HTH!