So there are lots of you out there that are very talented decorators but you haven’t done tiered cakes. A friend of mine, who is a far more talented decorator than I am, is one of these people. As I marvel at her ability to make a cookie look like an action hero, she tells me she doesn’t know how I feel comfortable making stacked cakes. Now, I may regret showing her just how easy it can be since that will be the last skill in her arsenal to leave me in the decorating dust, but it must be done. So Heather, this one’s for you…
Let’s start small. These are a 5″ and 7″ rounds iced and smoothed. The 5″ has a foil wrapped 5″ board beneath it. I ice it on a 10″ board to limit the mess.
Place the top cake in your freezer. Then, insert a dowel rod into the middle of your base cake. With a pencil, mark where the top of the icing hits the dowel rod.
Then, remove the dowel. Wipe it clean, leaving only the pencil mark. Then, cut it at your mark. Using that as your gauge for length, mark your other pieces. The rule of thumb is place as many dowels in your base as the cake on top is in inches. So in this case, we will be placing five dowels to support a five inch cake.
Check your dowels for loose pieces of wood. If you are using a sharp enough cutter, it should leave pretty clean edges.
Then, place the dowels in your bottom tier, returning your original center piece to the center.
Add some icing to serve as “glue” for the top tier.
Then, take your top tier out of the freezer. It should be firm to the touch making it easy to handle. Loosen it from the larger board upon which you iced it, and center it on your bottom cake. You will then need to pipe around the base of the top cake to fill in any gaps.
Smooth your fill in piping and you’re done!
Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it? It takes time and smoothing it once stacked can be tricky, but it’s not the impossible feat you once thought it to be. Try practicing smoothing multiple tiers on dummy cakes. Then the real thing won’t be so daunting.
Good luck and happy decorating, everybody!