Buttercream Rose Triple Tiered Cake

I had the pleasure of making this cake for our community's hard working youth leaders, including my sister and a number of close friends. I can finally scratch off two things I've always wanted to try: making a tiered cake and a fondant cake. Thanks to many professionals kind enough to share their incredible skills on youtube, I learned how to make this pinterest inspired cake. Each tier has two layers of red velvet cake, filled with vanilla buttercream. The bottom tier is 12 inches, topped with piped buttercream roses. The middle layer is 10 inches, covered with Wilton Fondant. The top layer is 8 inches, and again completed with buttercream roses.

I made two batches of vanilla buttercream, flavored with cream cheese extract.

The middle and top cake are resting on a cardboard circle for support, which you should cut to fit discreetly under the cake.

After frosting the middle layer, it's important to allow the buttercream to crust (set up until firm) before covering it with fondant. You can speed this process up by putting the cake in the refrigerator.

Little note to myself for timing purposes:
Baking cakes and cleaning: 3 hours
Baking 2 batches frosting, filling cakes and crumb coat and cleaning: 3 hours
Rolling and assembling fondant: 45 minutes

For the fondant 10 inch cake - after the buttercream fully crusted, I sprayed the cake with water from a mister in order for the fondant to easily stick. If you frost the cake with a much thicker layer of buttercream, it may not fully crust so the you will have to put it in the fridge for it to harden. You won't have to spray the cake with water though because the fondant will stick easily once the cake comes back to room temperature. I rolled the fondant out to an 18 inch circle and alittle less than 1/4 inch thick. I had alot of overhang, so it didn't need to be that big. The fondant was also a tiny bit see through so I would roll it out to 1/4 inch thick next time.

I put in 8 plastic straws/dowels in the 12 inch bottom cake and 7 in the middle 10 inch cake. You just stick them in, and mark them with a pen where you should cut it, just level with the cake. And of course take them back out the cake to cut it and then stick it back in. Much easier than I thought it was going to be!

Yield (wedding serving slices): 8 inch cake fed 24. 10 inch cake fed 38. 12 inch cake feeds 56.

Whipped Vanilla Buttercream
Yield: generously frosts 30 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups (4 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon clear vanilla
1 teaspoon cream cheese extract

Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter for 8 minutes on medium speed (I use "4" on my KitchenAid). Butter will become very pale & creamy.
Add remaining ingredients and mix on low speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 5 minutes. Frosting will be very light, creamy and fluffy. Pipes the best if you use it right away.