Hi, so I agreed to make my sisters wedding cake in August.  It was originally supposed to be just one top cutting tier and then a bunch of cupcakes.  I figured easy peazy.  Things have now changed big time and I'm kind of starting to freak out; she now wants a 4 tiered cake, which I've never done (only as many as 2 tiers).

So a couple questions I have:

1.)  The venue is allowing me to set up completely the night before and leave it fully assembled in their fridge, but I don't know if the gum paste flowers will hold up in the fridge, should I leave them off until the day of?

2.) Any tips for supports?  I usually use bubble straws and cake plates, will that be strong enough?  I'm just a hobbiest so I'm not willing to invest in the sps system

3.) I'm planning on putting in a centre dowel, but I don't know where you can get one?  What does everyone use for their centre dowels?

PS I am the maid of honour so there is VERY little I will be able to do the day of

No gumpaste flowers in the fridge. Bring them with you in boxes on the day of.

Keep the cake tiers on heavy duty carrying boards under the cake.  Venues are notoriously bad at "moving" cakes and screwing them up in the process. 

Buy plastic dowels from Wilton online. They come 12" long.  Use them in all tiers except the top one. Cut them straight across with a hacksaw and mitre box to make sure they are all the same length for each tier THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT for 4 tier cake.

Get a cake-capable friend to help you on the day of.  Good luck.

wow snowbunny--i see a tiny snowball at the top of a tall mountain just slipping over the edge....gaining speed...

if you are freaking out now and it's months away and you are the maid of honor and you can't do much day of--wow and you're not feeling qualified due to lack of experience and you don't want to invest in a secure support system that will make up some for your lack of experience

just think of how this could snowball on you

is that frige clean? is it secure?

this is not an easy job on a sunny day with a tail wind

you've got a lot of built in issues here

K8memphis-I'm aware of these issues.  No I'm not willing to invest in SPS; there are plenty of people on here that never use it and I'm am calling on them to help me here if they can.  Believe it or not I am aware of the situation I am in here and am looking for help now (months ahead of time) to help me be prepared.  The venue has a commercial kitchen and is on an army base and I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt for cleanliness and security, but will have the opportunity to see it before hand to make sure.

BakingIrene, thanks for the tips!  I figured gum paste wasn't fridge friendly *sigh*.  And I have a cake competent girl friend enlisted for the day of so she is going to help transporting the cake so the venue doesn't screw it up! (I've read too many horror stories on here lol).  Also, I read somewhere that you shouldn't use solid dowels for larger cakes as it displaces more or the cake than a hollow support, thus making it more unstable?  Does this have any validity?

Thanks!

what i mean is you are already playing the 'hobbyist' card

and don't get me wrong--i love to help peeps do cakes

but it doesn't sound like you really truly wanna do this

and it takes a big commitment--that's all i mean

it sounds like you maybe need to do this but it has gotten out of hand for you maybe?

how many servings???

I put gum paste items in the fridge overnight ALL the time and there are no issues.  As long as they are completely dry there should be no problem.   That's gum-paste...not fondant...and really dry. 

Your real problem lies in the fact you are the maid of honor and you're doing a 4-tier wedding cake.  One of those duties somewhere is going to suffer...and it probably will be you.

I did a 4-tier wedding cake (my first) in August once.  I still have bits of it in my car from when it crashed. 

You'll be getting lots of rah-rah help from others on here.  I can't do it in good conscience knowing the time that is involved in being a maid of honor...and in baking a big cake that you've never done before that's a centerpiece for a wedding.  Good luck...and do a lot of Googleing!
 

I'm actually kind of excited to do a large cake :).  And the design is uber simple which helps with the time commitment, and everyone knows that I'm going to need a helping hand so I have plenty of help (although most of the helpers have little cake experience, but can help with my maid of honour duties instead lol).  Don't get me wrong, I wasn't particularly impressed that she went from cupcakes to a full on tiered cake but I'm not about to squash what she wants on her wedding day, and I figure I have months to make sure I'm prepared.  The cake needs to serve about 150

Well then I would highly encourage you to actually reproduce a 4-tier cake right now to experience what you're in for.  Surely you have friends and co-workers who will eat the results.  You need the practice and waiting until the week of the wedding is not a good time to start.   So, pick a day you want the 'wedding' cake due and do everything you're planning to do for the real cake the week of and just see what happens.  You'll learn what works, what doesn't, your time constraints...the expense(!)..in short you'll learn from the experience and know what you need to work on.  Plus you'll have a lot of happy cake-eaters out there.  Better to be prepared with actual experience than to just have instructions to go by.  IMO! 
 

And ^ that is why Carmijok is one of my heros!  Excellent advice.

and find a commercial facility to store it in overnight to see how it does after they go through a couple meal shifts

if they leave it in the front of the fridge it'll be jostled around constantly by peeps in a hurry oh no

if it's in the back of the fridge (maybe a walk-in that's where the condenser boxes are located and can leak like waterfalls and give off heat oh no--or the condensation can splash onto whatever is in it's path)

and how the humidity in the fridge affects the cake--hopefully it doesn't have any cut onions or garlic anywhere nearby, no fresh herbs, nice aged cheddar cheese etc.

certainly there'd never be a rank peice of old fish or ancient forgotten chicken never never never never never