I was asked by a friend to do a 4 tiered cake. The design is pretty simple but she wants a square cake on the bottom and circle cakes as the other three tiers. I am not sure what size cakes to do, it needs to feed about 130-140 people. Any ideas?

Also this is my first multi-tiered cake. Can anyone give me advice about support and dowels?

Thanks!!!!

Using Earlene's cake serving chart, I would do a 14 inch square on the bottom, with 11, 8, and 5 inch rounds. That would give you 140 servings exactly, using her chart and not saving the top tier. http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm

I would use the SPS system (available from global sugar art or the cake cottage) for support.

Good luck.

What a dear person Earlene is BUT.......I dont'agreee w/her serving chart. She cuts the slices a bit bigger than the industry standard *and* discards many that are not the exact size/shape This means you loose $$ in figuring pricing.
April has the right idea, but not many people have those odd sized pans (11 & 5) so why not use standard 10, 8, 6 rounds on the 14" sq. that will give you plenty of servings.

136 servings: 12" square, 10" round, 8" round, 6" round.
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm

Building tiered cakes:
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/tiered-cakes/