Frozen Inspired Birthday Cake Project: Preparation (work begins Wednesday!)

Following my beloved vanilla cupcake recipe, I'm going to turn that recipe into a cake recipe for a Frozen inspired birthday cake.  I found a handy converter of # of cups of batter per cake size on Wilton's website: http://www.wilton.com/wedding/wedding-cakes/wedding-cake-data.cfm
I'm planning to making a 3-tiered cake using a 6", 8", and 10" cake pan, which means i'll need about 16 cups of cake batter, or about 3-3.5 recipes of my vanilla cupcakes. 

I haven't decided yet what filling to put between the layers of the cake...that'll be covered between now and Wednesday. I may stick with the buttercream recipe that I use with the cupcakes.  Just need to determine if I feel that this will be 'stiff' enough to act as a crumb coating prior to covering it with fondant.

Following the rave reviews of marshmallow fondant (http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Rolled-Marshmallow-Fondant), I'm going to make it and dye a portion of it that pretty light blue and keep the other portion white and make a 'snow/ice' sheet to put over the blue layer. 

I'm going to make royal icing in an attempt to make homemade snowflakes to decorate the cake with...this should be a hoot (http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing). 

I also just purchased a set of the frozen character figurines to place on and around the cakes. 

I have some dusting powder and sparkly sugar to also decorate the fondant with. 

I'll be writing up the process as I go along and try and capture photos as it'll be about a 4 day project. It all begins Wednesday!  Stay tuned ;).