tools « Tiffany Loves Cake!

Tutorial Tuesday: How to Stack a Tiered Cake

28 Jun 2011 5 Comments

by gemcitytiffany in buttercream, cake, fondant, leanrning, orange, pink, three tier, tutorial, tutorial tuesday, white cake Tags: baking, buttercream, cake, cake support, cute, deocorating, diy, dowels, fondant, food, fun, how to, how to stack a cake, how to support a cake, stacked cake, stacking cake, starting, tiered cake, tiered cake support, tools, tutorial, tutorial tuesday, Wordpress

People ask me all the time what they need to do to ensure the integrity of their tiered cakes. I’ll show you how I do it.

First I cover my cakes with fondant. This is a bit more tricky with buttercream covered cakes… but I do most of my cakes in fondant.

The bottom cake is given a support system. Honestly, drinking straws work awesome. I find the center of my cake and come out a couple of inches in each direction and insert a straw. Be careful not to put the supports out further than the next cake with overlap.

Pull the straws up a tiny bit and cut each one so that once you push it back into the cake, it’s level with the cake and rests on the bottom of the cake board. The concept here is that the next cake’s weight will be supported completely by these straws and it won’t crush this cake.

Now, sometimes when I do a tiered cake, I’ll add a center support to keep the cake from falling over or sliding around, coming off center etc.

I usually use a wooden skewer in this case. Be sure that your skewer is cut to the correct height, you don’t want it tearing through the top of your top tier. That would be bad!
This cake is going to be a three tier.

This next part is very important… you have to have a board under your other cake as well. The board distributes the weight across the supports. I usually cut a piece of foam core board into a circle slightly smaller than the cake is and cover it in foil. Also important… if you’re using a center support… POKE A HOLE INTO THE CENTER OF THIS BOARD BEFORE YOU PUT THE CAKE ON IT. (See how serious I am? I resorted to capslock…)
If not, you won’t be able to properly do this.

Yeah, that cake looks a little wonky. Don’t worry about that bottom, that’s what boarders are for ;)

I added a third tier on top of this, putting supports in this second tier the same way as on the bottom. Once you get the cake on, it might look a little rough from the handling, but you just need to wiggle things around a little and smooth things down a little and hey, decorating cakes is all about covering up imperfections with awesome little things you create.

Here’s a photo of it with the top tier on.

Happy stacking!

Tutorial Tuesday: How to level a cake

13 Jun 2011 13 Comments

by gemcitytiffany in cake, leanrning, tutorial, tutorial tuesday, zebra cake Tags: baking, Blog, cake, cake leveler, children, colorful, cut a cake, deocorating, diy, food, fun, how to, how to level a cake, level, starting, tools, tutorial, tutorial tuesday, without a tool, zebra cake

Lots of people ask me how I level my cakes. There are some fancy things you can buy that are supposed to do this job, but I’ve never had much luck with them. I’ll show you how I can level any size cake with just one bread knife. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a skill and takes some time. Don’t blame me if you wreck your cake! haha

Okay, so first, you’ll need a cake!
Like this one:

Ok, it doesn’t have to be juuust like this one ;) But seriously, look how wonky this cake is!

You’re going to need a knife. A long serrated bread knife is best. Whatever knife you use, it MUST be serrated. And for goodness sake, let that cake cool first!

Now, you want to score the top. JUST SCORE IT, don’t cut any further than the highest post that is not domed. Does that make sense?

See here? How I stop right at the edge? That’s as low as you want to score.

Now the other way, same thing. You’re scoring the dome top into four sections:

Now, holding your knife steady as possible, you’re going to start on one section, Begin your cut right below where the dome stops being… domey. You want to get rid of that hard crusty part anyhow.
And then cut as straight as you can through that section.

One down, three to go!

Continue with the other sections, using the previous section as a guide for accuracy.

Okay, you see how one section is raised higher there? You can see it in the center. It’s easy to spot.

But don’t fret, it’s easy to just run the knife across that spot, hold your hand steady and shave that bit down.

Ta-da!

There you have it. A level cake. And some delicious leftovers…

(That’s NOT waste… you eat that! or these scraps are great to save for cake pops or cake balls!)

Now, some explanation… yes, you can just do this in two sections. I’d rather do it in four though because when you make one long cut across the surface of the cake, you have a bigger chance of cutting up or down on an angle.
If I do a square cake, sometimes I might just do two sections. It’s easier to keep a level eye on something with corners ;)
I like this method because most cakes I bake are wider across than my knife is long. I can’t just slice the top off in one sweep.
Also, NEVER BE AFRAID. People are afraid to correctly level their cakes because OMGBBQTHATSHALFTHECAKE. But listen, that cake is only holding you back. You stack that thing with a dome top and you’re whole cake is going to fall apart. It’s gravity. I promise. It’s bad news. Plus, who wants to eat those crunchy burnt edges? Not I!
Final note: when you go to frost this thing, whether it’s being frosted just as one layer or stacked with another… your top- is now your bottom. Flip that thing over and frost the “bottom”… otherwise you’ll be trying to frost crumbly, unseared in cake! lol
It would fall apart on you. Just sayin.

Sorry for being MIA. Still trying to work stuff out with my health. If you haven’t got your health… well, you haven’t go anything <3
Happy decorating!

Tutorial Tuesday: Striped Cupcakes

12 Apr 2011 3 Comments

by gemcitytiffany in cake, chocolate, cool inside, cupcakes, tutorial, tutorial tuesday, zebra cake Tags: baking, birthday, Blog, cake, chocolate, colorful, cupcakes, cute, deocorating, diy, fondant, food, fun, how to, marble, striped, tools, tutorial, tutorial tuesday, Wordpress, yellow, zebra cake, zebra cupcakes

A slight variation on the zebra cake. Since they’re so small, they might not be all that stripy, but could at least be considered a cool marble! Results may vary haha.

I started with a chocolate batter and a yellow batter. I used teaspoons. I think the secret here is super small layers. Keep building layers like with the cake. Don’t spread with the spoon and try to get each teaspoon in the center of the last.