Castle Birthday Cake

[Chasingcars]

I am attempting a fairy castle birthday cake for my little girl. I have found some great ideas and most of the have a larger round cake with smaller one on top (some a 3rd tier too) plus little turrets.
Is it best to make a standard Victoria sponge and cut the smaller tiers out of the larger sized tins, or if I buy smaller baking tins should I be using a different recipe and cook for less time? I have found a lot of great visual ideas online but struggling to find how best to construct the basic cake layers without wasting lots of cake or cooking more cakes than necessary.
Thankyou!

[Barmaid]

Tbh, if you are going to go to the expense of buying new tins, I would be inclined just to make extra cake and cut it to size (on a pure cost basis I see the latter as being more cost effective).

I would probably use madeira sponge though. It is slightly denser and provides better support than a victoria.

[follyfancier]

make trifle with the left over bits