619034 Mon May 11 13:23:30 -0700 2009 9 31 Home Cooking 0 4674135 Hi, I want to make a great cake for my son's first birthday this month. I saw a recipe in a Canadian magazine that suggests baking a 9 x 13 sheet cake and then cutting out three circles of different diameters: 7-, 5- and 3-inches. It looks like a cute way to make a tiered cake without buying and using three sizes of cake pans. Plus I like the idea of my son having the top layer all to himself. Has anyone made such a cake, and do you have photos? Any tips on constructing it or decorating ideas would be appreciated. Mon May 11 13:23:30 -0700 2009 291829 Vancouver Mama 1 4674283 Before you do that, definitely sketch out how the circles will work. My guess is that it will be difficult to do evenly. I also think that it'll be tricky to frost (lots of crumbs) but you can get through that with a crumb coat. Note that this will not really feed people the way a three tiered cake normally would, as this will be three very thin tiers, instead of each tier being two cakes, with a filling and then frosted together. I'd also advise putting a cardboard circle between each layer, and using wooden dowels or (nonbending) drinking straws to ensure that the construction is solid. Mon May 11 14:01:12 -0700 2009 4674135 92823 milklady 1 4674413 This link will answer the engineering questions: http://bakedecoratecelebrate.com/techniques.cfm?cat=8 Mon May 11 14:43:12 -0700 2009 4674135 159317 greygarious 1 4674788 As milklady said, it is harder to frost a cake w/ cut edges and it's harder, for me at least, to frost a small cake than a larger one. You could freeze the cakes, then do a thin crumb coat before putting on the final coat of frosting. I don't like freezing the cake first but it does help with the crumbs. I would use a cardboard base below each layer (you can buy them, or cut a piece of cardboard into a circle and cover with aluminum foil) and stack it that way. Frost to cover the cardboard rounds. That way, before cutting, you can take the cake apart easily. With the size cake tiers you're using, I don't think you need to worry about supports. If I were doing it, rather than waste so much cake (though it doesn't really go to waste in my house), I'd cut the cake in half, and use one half as a rectangular base. Cut the other cake about 1/3 and 2/3rds and use those as the remaining tiers. You can frost them like a present and stack. No waste and easier to frost. I have a cake I made for a first birthday that is stacked but I used 4 square cubes on the bottom, decorated like blocks. Then I used wedding pillars out of those cakes to support a round cake on top, decorated like a drum w/ Elmo and Sesame Street characters on it. If I can upload it, I'll do it but have had problems with uploading. And I'm a terrible photographer. Mon May 11 16:38:27 -0700 2009 4674135 39874 chowser 1 4674796 Let's see if this picture works. Mon May 11 16:40:55 -0700 2009 4674135 39874 chowser 2 4675570 Wow, your cake looks amazing. I'm embarrassed to post my photos here. I did a trial run this afternoon, and, as you can see, the results are less than stellar. First off, I did a bit of a hack job cutting out the circles. Then, as you and milklady note, it's hard to do a crumb coat on a cut edge. As you note, there's also a lot of waste. I just stuck a skewer down the middle for support. The layers turned out surprisingly thick.( I made the sheet cake from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and it is awesome. I did a vanilla buttercream frosting which is boring and too sweet (but probably great for kids). I don't know. Perhaps with a little more patience and time I could turn out a more polished version for my son's birthday. Or I could just make the sheet cake and frost it with something tastier. Mon May 11 21:26:04 -0700 2009 4674796 291829 Vancouver Mama 3 4675578 sorry, here are the photos again Mon May 11 21:31:56 -0700 2009 4675570 291829 Vancouver Mama 3 4675852 Your cake is very pretty! What would you change about it, if you could, and maybe we could offer suggestions on how to do it. I had been thinking it would be challenging to cut a cake into three perfect circles but yours look fine. I don't know if you used cardboard rounds to separate the layers but I highly recommend it so you can easily separate the tiers. It makes cutting and serving that much easier. Good job on it, though--I'm impressed that you're doing trials. I always say I'm going to but never get around to it. Tue May 12 04:34:06 -0700 2009 4675570 39874 chowser 1 4676031 Not sure about your comfort level with baking and decoratiing but I like Liv Hansen's books. http://whimsicalbakehouse.com I have 2 of her books and have found ideas that can be adapted to different levels of decorating skill. The instructions are clear and the author answers e-mailed questions. Btw, my SIL lives near her bakery and the cakes really do taste as good as they look. Tue May 12 06:17:32 -0700 2009 4674135 25244 rockycat 1 4676149 Just saw an episode of "Baking with Julia" on PBS in which Martha Stweart (!!) bakes a relatively simple three tiered wedding cake. Even if you don't follow the recipe, the construction of the three layers may be useful for you (there are 2 episodes and it's in Part 2). The episode is available on line: http://www.pbs.org/juliachild/video.html Tue May 12 06:58:34 -0700 2009 4674135 240832 serenarobin