Thanks for the great advice. I tried my first test cake and (to me) it was a disaster. My husband loved it and has since eaten the whole thing. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for white chocolate mousse and (I think due to a typo- or me)it didn't come out how I thought mousse should look. Plus it was a school night (I'm in vet school) and I was getting a cold. I think freezing before trying to cut layers will be key for me. That was tricky and I was impatient- not a good combo. I used a boxed chocolate cake that I flavored with a kirsch simple syrup. I think the cake ended up ok just the mousse and the buttercream sucked. Does that sound like a good combo???
Another question... so do I assemble the tiers at the site or before hand? If I use colored fondant on top of white fondant (like if I used a stencil to cut out a pattern) will that bleed if the cake sweats?