The key to picture perfect cakes is leveling. In this part of the Preparing to Decorate Your Cake series, I’ll discuss a few tips that will make leveling your cake a breeze.

Before you level your cake, make sure it has cooled for one hour. If you have frozen your cake layers then you may need to let them thaw slightly before trimming overcooked edges and leveling.

There’s a couple ways to level your cake. You can either use a long serrated knife or a cake leveler.

To level with a knife, move the sharp knife across th e top of the cake in a back and forth sawing motion. Keep the knife parallel to the cake surface as you move the knife back and forth across the cake and rotate the cake. After you remove the cake crown, brush off any crumbs with a pastry knife.

In my experience it’s worth the small investment to buy a cake leveler. I was able to find one at my local Walmart in their arts and crafts section. You can also create your own cake leveler with dental floss, or fishing line by wrapping the line around wooden dowels or Legos. Build the Legos up to the proper height and snap your line into place.

Position the ends of the cutting wire to the desired height. Cut into the cake keeping the legs level on the cutting surface and use a gentle sliding motion to cut.

Torting:

Torting is cutting a cake into layers. This effect can make an impression because it gives your cake more layers to fill with icing, mousse, jellies, fruits, candies etc.

The easiest and most accurate way to tort is by using a cake leveler.

However, you can slice the layers by hand by inserting toothpicks halfway into the sides of the cakes around the entire cake. Cut the cake above the toothpicks and then remove the top layer by sliding it onto a flat surface like a cookie sheet or a cake board. Fill the bottom layer and then slide the next layer off the sheet onto the filled layer.

Torting can take some practice because it’s essential that your layers are sliced evenly or you can end up with a lop-sided cake.

In the beginning I recommend just splitting a layer in half until you’re confident you can get even layers.

The next step in the process will be covered in Part 3: Icing Your Cake.

Part 1 Baking Basics

• Attach – Securing decorations to your cake using icing as “glue”
• Border – Decoration used around the top, side or base of a cake.
• Buttercream -  A smooth, creamy icing made from butter, that stays soft so it’s easy to cut through.
• Filling - Frosting, preserves, pudding, fruit etc. that is spread between cake layers to hold them together.
• Fondant – A sweet, elastic icing made of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin that’s literally rolled out with a rolling pin, draped over a cake and dries with a porcelain-like finish.
• Gum Paste – A sugar paste with a gum stiffening agent, used for handmade flowers and other three-dimensional decorations.
• Leveling – Removing the “crown” of a cake to make cake layers even.
• Outline - icing that follows contours of a shaped cake or to cover pattern design marks.
• Marzipan -  A paste made of ground almonds, sugar, and egg whites, used to mold edible flowers or fruit to decorate the cake. Marzipan can also be rolled in sheets, like fondant, and used as icing.
• Piping – Squeezing icing out of a bag to form decoration.
• Royal Icing -  Usually made with egg whites and confectioner’s sugar and used to create flowers, latticework, and beading .
• Score – Using a spatula or other utensil to make a mark in icing.