CAKE BASICS
PREPPING AND ICING A LAYER CAKE
Making Layers Even
Ever bake a cake and once decorated, find it’s a bit “rounder” than you anticipated?
I’m here to let you know that it’s not you—it’s the nature of the cake!
Unless cakes have been leveled, if you try and stack them, you’ll end up with a fairly uneven mound of cake that slopes on the sides, which, although tasty, isn’t the most aesthetically appealing.
Baking bands come in handy, and I absolutely recommend them if you’re trying to tackle large projects, such as multi layered cakes.
To make perfectly even layers, be sure to divide your batter evenly among pans.
Use baking bands (soaked in water and then squeezed) to increase the odds of even baking. Once the cakes have baked, let them cool in the pans for about 30 minutes.
After they are slightly cooled, gently slide a knife around the edges of the cake pan to release, and once the cakes have completely cooled, invert each one once onto a plate and then reposition it so that the top of the cake is facing up.
Basically, you’re flipping both cakes out of the pans and just making sure the bottom is on the bottom and top is on the top.
Use a long serrated knife to slice off just the tops of the cake so that both cake rounds appear very level. Use excess cake for crumbs … or just eat it!
Now your cake is ready to be decorated!
