Hello all!  An acquaintance of mine would like me to try to make her wedding cake to feed 250 people.  Eek!  So that would be a 15, 12, 9, and 6” cake.  The thought of it scares me bc I’ve literally made 3 tiered cakes (only as high as 3 tiers) cakes my life.  Hahha is this too daunting a task?  My husband thinks im crazy but I love a good challenge.  Is this mad??

Also she likes not so sweet cakes. So I was thinking maybe a genoise with mousseline bc and filled with strawberry mousseline?  She wanted a strawberry like filling but not direct preserves.  I love pairing a sponge with whipped cream and fresh strawberries but is that possible with such a tiered cake?  Is the super stabilized whipped cream too light to support such a cake?  Also, how do u add fresh fruit without the filling getting too moist?  Any thoughts would be appreciated!

I think you should stick with the three tiers, and use what a lot of people call utility cake or kitchen cake to serve the remaining guests.  This way, you know you can manage the 3 tiers (in terms of decorating, lifting and transporting) because you’ve done it before and the utility cake is just boxed up and easy to transport/carry.

If you want to do four tiers, make sure your cake drum is sturdy - some people use masonite, some use plywood; I use multiple cake 1/2-inch drums glued together and then I hide the sides with ribbon (hot-glued on to the sides).  One of our weddings this weekend is a 16/13/11/9/7/5 and I’m using three cake drums for the base.

Thank you Jeanne!  How do you even lift a cake like that?  I’m 5’2 and I can barely carry a three tiered cake myself!  Thanks for all the input.  I did think about the sheet cake for easy serving, but I don’t have a sheet cake pan… only a jelly roll pan, but that won’t work right?  I will look into getting one though.  Any thoughts on the filling issue?

Our house buttercream is Italian Meringue and I use Ponthier as well as Caraman fruit purees (we go through a lot at work, and I can’t keep up making my own purees anymore) which work beautifully combined into the buttercream.  When I have a request for fresh fruit, I slice strawberries into medium dice, make a dam of buttercream around the edge and sprinkle the chopped fruit over the cake layer and fill with strawberry buttercream. (We use three layers of cake and two layers of filling in each tier).

The sheet cake/utility cake doesn’t have to be a specific shape; use the same round pans you’re using for the wedding cake.  For me, if I have an order for 130 servings, I could do a 13/10/7 round, which gives me 100 servings.  If the client is keeping the top tier (we do a lot of work with venues who offer this option to their brides), I need another 40 servings.  I can either make a 10” square or I can make one more 13” round and call it a day - even though that 13” round gives me way more servings than the 40 I need (I calculate the 13” round as providing 60 servings).  It is less wasteful for me to just make that, than to make another 2 10” square and fill them, leaving me with one 10” square cake layer and one 13” cake layer. (I use 2” high cake pans).

I would calculate that 15/12/9/6 as serving 150 guests; so I’d make another 15” round (80 servings) and another 9” round (20 servings) to get the 250 you need.

Thanks so much Jeanne!  Would you believe that I have never even thought is just making smaller cakes the back?  Hahaha. I was just imagining sheet cakes like Costco! Hahah. Thanks for the tips!

That cake on Saturday was SO heavy.  It was the first time I ever thought I might falter lifting a cake.  I was so glad I had it in a carton.

Definitely have two cake drums taped together with a ribbon around the side edge (go over it twice in case the seam shows).

This is a really bad photo (very grainy, took it with my cell phone); can’t wait to see the professional ones though!

ETA: this isn’t the cake I meant; turns out I don’t have a photo of it. This is just one of the ones we had this weekend….

Hi Jeanne,
The cake is so beautiful. I love the flowers Are they made by fondant?
Where do you get Ponthier or Caraman fruit purees ? Thanks,

Hi! The flowers were made from gum paste; my favorite brand of gum paste is by Albert Uster Imports - it dries very quickly - I was able to form the flowers and thin them with a ball tool, put them on a curved flower former and then after doing 20 or so, I could slide them off the former onto a parchment lined sheet and they kept their curves. (I make them days in advance, and always twice as much as I think I will use).

Ponthier is sold through Swiss Chalet Fine Foods (http://www.scff.com) and the Caraman is Albert Uster (http://www.auiswiss.com).  I used to use Purfect Puree, but when I tasted the Ponthier, I was really impressed with the clear, true flavors.  Some of the more unusual ones (blueberry, peach, coconut even) were so incredible I bought them on the spot without having an immediate need or use for them.  They were that good.  I go back and forth on the Ponthier and Caraman raspberry, but I will only use the Ponthier strawberry and Caraman passion fruit.

Jeanne, your cake is gorgeous. I wish I knew you when I was getting married.