Lauren ~

I have made a number of large wedding cakes in my past. I am no longer doing it cause of the time and labor. I loved it at the time. All of the cakes I did were for family members, friends or friends-of-friends.

I never made a wedding cake from scratch. All of the cakes I made were box mixes with extracts added. My most favorite was adding almond flavor to white cake. One chocolate cake, however, we added a touch of peppermint. And, I almost always added vanilla extract to the mix.

To guarantee the cake was moist -- and easy to assemble-- I baked them ahead, wrapped them tightly, and froze the individual layers. This also enabled me to buy a minimum number of the expensive cake pans.

I leveled, crumb frosted and layered the individual layers while still frozen.

(I made my crumb frosting by thinning the same icing that I used on the cake).

Most of my cakes were made in the 80s... there are many more cake mix choices available these days.

You might give serious consideration to mixes.

Keep us posted!

Kel