Comments on: layer cake tips + the biggest birthday cake yet

By: Marcela

Marcela — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:27:36 +0000

Thanks so much, Deb. I really appreciate the advice!

By: deb

deb — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:40:23 +0000

Maysem — It will depend on your recipe. Some cakes dome a lot and not even bake strips will flatten them out. They’ll only reduce the dome. You should try combining the strips with lowering the temperature in your oven, which I noted worked for me.

By: Maysem

Maysem — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:27:38 +0000

I tried the bake even strips but it seems to never work for me…I still get the bump in the center. Am I doing something wrong?

By: deb

deb — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:25:11 +0000

Depending on the size of the cake and the warmth of your kitchen… Mine are generally almost completely defrosted by the time I am done frosting them. Your defrosting time may vary, but it is never as long as you’d expect. Give it an hour or so on the counter once you’re done and you’ll be more than covered.

By: Marcela

Marcela — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:04:24 +0000

Deb, thank you so much for this post, which has helped me tremendously. I’m still confused about the freezing part, though. When do you pull the cake out of the freezer to frost it for a dinner party? And do you have to do anything special to defrost it? I’m going to try freezing a cake overnight so I can frost it nicely for a dinner party, but I want to make sure I don’t accidentally serve still-frozen cake!

By: Sadie

Sadie — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:12:13 +0000

this is awesooome, love it!

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:33:37 +0000

Wow, this post is infinitely helpful. Reading about glazing with sugar syrups (which I never knew existed for cakes, silly me) has just brought to memory a terrible cake I had at a wedding at this exactly explains what went wrong! The cake was like eating a wet sponge and water actually seeped into our mouths with the first bite. And it was cold. And on the way home we stopped for ice cream to erase it from our memory. Perhaps the cousin-turned-exceedingly-bad-chef that created drowned it? Thank you for giving some kind of explanation to this previously unanswerable situation!!!

By: Debbie

Debbie — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:45:27 +0000

Deb,
I really found the tips helpful. Your cake looks amazing. I am wondering about buying boxes for transporting my 3 layer cakes. If I am making 8 inch three layer cakes and I get a 10″ cake board to put them on how high should the box be the transport them in? It seems like 5 1/2″ might not be hign enough…what do you think. It looks like I am going to have to buy in bulk quantity so I want to get the right size since the shipping $ is high. I live in Santa Barbara, CA and I am not sure if there is a cake baking supply anywhere close. Thank you.

By: Magdalena

Magdalena — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:34:23 +0000

So much cake! It does fit just barely in a 6 quart kitchenaid – but with many many pauses to push the dough back down while adding the butter/buttermilk to the dry ingredients. I haven’t had any of the cake itself yet (it’s for a party tomorrow) but the batter was excellent!

By: marriedgirl

marriedgirl — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:53:22 +0000

Deb-
The reason behind the strips being around the cake pan is that they prevent the edges from baking faster than the center, thus ensuring flatness.