Preparing cakes for icing.

There are different ways that people do this, and I am sure someone is sitting back shaking their head saying NUH UH. But this is the way I do it, and I may find I am mistaken. If I find a better way, I'll be sure to admit my mistakes.

First I take my cooled and "settled" cakes and place them on the appropriate sized cake boards (attaching with a bit of icing).

Then I level them, and by leveling I mean leveling. I have a small level to check the cakes with. I use the small wilton leveler for small cakes taking off just enough to level, but for larger ones I place enough cake boards in the bottom of the pan to act as a pedestal for the cake.

I then slide the cake back into the pan so that just enough to level is sticking above the pan. Then keeping the knife level, I go around the top of the pan with the knife. I then slide a thin plastic cutting board or cake lifter under the part being cut off and set it off to one side (don't throw these away, I'll tell you why later).

Then I flip the cakes out onto either a cardboard cake board, foamcore board, separator plate, or wooden cake board (with icing to attach to board) that has been wrapped with cake foil. This will depend on style of cake you are doing. You can see instructions for stacking a tiered cake at the Wilton website:

WILTON

For center column construction:

WILTON

or Separator Plate Construction:

WILTON

or globe pillar construction:

WILTON

or Push-in Pillars:

WILTON

There are other methods you can also find on the wilton website, these are the main ones.

After removing any dome, you need to tort the cakes. This can be done either with the wilton levelers, the Agbay (expense, but excellent), or by measuring to the middle of the cake from the bottom and putting dots of icing around the cake to follow with your knife. If you do this last method, be sure to keep you knife level at all times. Before separating put a toothpick in the top side and bottom side of cake (one above the other). Separate the two pieces with a plastic cutting board or cake leveler.

Using a basting brush, lightly brush off any crumbs that might "dirty" your icing.

Using a larger round tip, pipe a "rope" of icing around the outside edge of the bottom tier (leave about a 1/4 of cake showing on the outside lip. Fill the inside of the rope with either a firm filling or buttercream. Do not put in so much filling that it oozes passed the icing "rope".

Put on the top cake (making sure that your toothpicks match up). Put a very thin layer of icing (crumbcoat) on the outside of the cake. Let this "crust" (it will taste several minutes). After a crust has formed on the cakes, put on a thicker layer of icing.

Starting at the top, put enough icing in the center of the cake to lay down somewhere between 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness evenly across the top of the cake.Starting at the outside edge, lightly sweep the icing to the center of the cake and lift. Continue doing this all the way around the cake...then smooth out center.

If you are having trouble getting it to a smooth surface, run hot water on you spatula, dry it off and continue. It is very important to keep you knife at a 90 degree angle when you are spreading the icing on the sides. This will insure you icing is the same thickeness throughout. You can also put icing on your cake with the #789 tips for the before stated reason.