Baking a tiered cake

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betterthanabox

Senior Cook
Joined
Sep 28, 2010
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I am want to make a 2 tiered cake for my husband's birthday. I have the cake, icing, cake circle, tips, and bags, but is there anything that I am missing. I have never baked a stacked cake. I don't have a clue where to begin. Here is my plan

The night before, I am going to bake 2 10 in cakes, and 2 9 in cakes (I will trim to 8 in) and allow to cool.

Then the next day I thought I would put a little icing on my cake circle, and plop down the first layer, then fill with icing, and then top with next 10 in. Then I planned to ice that tier.

Then I would put the 8 in on top, fill, put the second 8 in on and ice. Then I plan to decorate it with some piping around the two cakes.

Am I doing this right?:ermm:

Thanks for your help!
 
There are many others here to give you detailed advice, but my two cents is:

Be certain to trim off the top of each layer absolutely level.
 
When I do tiered cakes, I treat each tier separately. So you will have an 8 inch fully frosted cake, and a 10 inch fully frosted cake, each on its own cake circle.

Then insert a drinking straw or dowel into the larger cake. Cut it off level with the top. Remove it and use it as a guide to cut several more. This will ensure that they are all the same height and your cake will be level. If you just put them all in and cut them, it probably won't be level because no layer is ever perfect.

Put them all into the bottom cake at even spaces. This will support the top tier and keep it from squishing the filling out of the bottom tier. Now put the top tier on and use a pretty tip to decorate a border around the joint.

One note. The difference between an 8 inch and a 10 inch is only 1 inch band around the cake. Your decorated border may fill it, and you might not get the effect of a tier. Usually (not mandatory so not one jump up and down here) but usually, there is a 4 inch difference in size between the teirs. Tha gives you a 2 inch border. ie, a 6 inch on a 10 inch or an 8 inch on a 12 inch. It is a little more defined visually.
 
Silversage has made some great points.

You don't need to really use dowels or straws for a two tiered cake, but it wouldn't hurt either. Put three in an even triangle making sure it is about one inch in from the width of the smaller top cake. put the straw/dowel into the three places measuring for the tallest one. Cut all three to this height to make sure your top tier will be even.

I agree on the sizes of the layers. I usually do them 2 - 3 inches difference between the layers.
 
If you trim the 9" down to 8" you will have lots of crumbs. Pop the trimmed 8" inchers into the freezer and give them a thin layer of frosting to hold the crumbs to the cake. It sounds like you will end up with 4 layers, 2 10" and 2 8". If you want the full tiered impact, have you thought of leaving one of the 9" as is?
 
Oldvine, a "tiered" cake is usually made up of a few layer cakes. The layer cakes have two - four layers and each "cake" is of a different size, preferably at 3 to 4 inches difference in diameter.

If you were to layer two 10 inch cakes with filling between them, then just added a single 9 inch layer and a single 8 inch layer, it would look off balance and also, these two tiers would not have a filling and would be half as high as the bottom one.
 
Oldvine, a "tiered" cake is usually made up of a few layer cakes. The layer cakes have two - four layers and each "cake" is of a different size, preferably at 3 to 4 inches difference in diameter.

If you were to layer two 10 inch cakes with filling between them, then just added a single 9 inch layer and a single 8 inch layer, it would look off balance and also, these two tiers would not have a filling and would be half as high as the bottom one.

This is what happens when too many layers are put in one tier:

H3.jpg


That was our wedding cake. Believe it or not, it was from a bakery that my husband wanted because of the great cake they had made for some friends of ours. It tasted pretty good. I think it's hilarious. :ROFLMAO:
 
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