Tips for making wedding cakes

• Set aside plenty of time. I baked from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a two-hour break. This is not the kind of project that can be rushed.

• Defrost all your butter the night before. I'll say it again, because it bears repeating: Defrost ALL of your butter the night before.

• Could you do this in a small kitchen? Probably. Fridge and freezer space should be your biggest considerations. I chose my parents' house because it was air-conditioned and they have an empty second refrigerator that I could commandeer for three days.

• Do not buy flimsy bakery-style boxes. Or, if you do, consider reinforcing them with heavy-duty cardboard and duct tape. You do not want your gorgeous cupcakes to be at the mercy of flimsy 99-cent boxes (mine were). I found one site online (too late in the process) that lets you purchase samples of their boxes before ordering (www.brpboxshop.com).

• Consider transportation. I drive a station wagon, and we put the seats down to create extra room for the cakes. Blasting air conditioning in the transport vehicle is a must for warm days. And drive slowly! Chilling the cakes overnight with the crumb layer of frosting meant if a cake did slide and bump into the side of the box, all would not be lost.

• To avoid sticker shock, slowly stock up on the more expensive supplies such as butter and sugar. No one ever needs to know the final cost of buying eight pounds of butter all at once.

• Measure your cupcake batter as you pour it into the cups. It's going to look too scant almost every time, but better they be a little small than you waste an hour trying to dig out a dozen cupcakes that bubbled over and stuck to the pan.

• Buy nice pans and use the same kind of pan for every cake. I bought brand new pans (three of each, in case we decided to go really crazy and go for three-layer cakes), the Wilton performance series, and was really happy with them.

• Go a little crazy with pan prep. My process goes like this: Rub with shortening, then dust with flour, then press a parchment round in the bottom and a strip around the edges; finally spray with a vegetable oil spray. The strip around the edges is key for a smoother release.

• Less is more when it comes to decorating with icing. Use a firm but steady hand when piping frosting onto cupcakes, and don't feel like you have to create a perfect 4-inch-high cone of frosting.

• Timing and temperature are key on the day you serve the cake. I wanted the cake table to be ready as guests arrived, but that meant the cakes were sitting out in a warm barn for a few hours before they were served. Needless to say, the filling layer, carefully chilled the night before, became a little softer than I would have liked.