Hi there lovelies! The holidays are a time for baking around here.
So far this season I’ve attempted my first pumpkin roll, made a few pies and plan on making some homemade candy this evening!

Today, in the spirit of the major baking season, I have a few tips for you on how to make a better layer cake.

First of all, I love layered cakes. You can most definitely still use just a cake mix, so they’re as easy to make as a normal pan cake, but they look much more impressive. They require only a little extra time, but give off the impression of much more time spent then a normal pan cake.

One of the most important things for make a good layer cake is preparing your pans. By all means go the extra mile and grease and flour those suckers. Sure non-stick spray works alright, but if you want the cake to really come out clean, the grease and flour method works the best. Using parchment paper in the bottom of your pan is an extra step against having your cake stick, but I’ve found for the most part grease and flour does the trick.

I do recommend parchment paper as a way to turn out each cake to cool before stacking though. Lay a plate down, then cover it with parchment. Turn your cake over onto the parchment paper and allow to cool completely before stacking. Otherwise, as the cake cools it might stick to your plate.

Another tip at this point is to cut off the rounded top of your bottom layer cake. This gives the top layer a nice, mostly flat surface to rest on to make your cake more even. I use a butter knife to just sort of shave off the rounded top and even it out.

I usually use store bought icing. After all the point is to make an easy cake but with a funner look right?!

You’ll want to cover the top of your bottom layer, then stack your top layer before icing completely. This way you don’t work on getting a nice bottom layer only to mess it up trying to blend it in with the top layer. Once it’s stacked you can ice the entire cake.

Now because store bought icing is often much thinner than homemade icing it’s a good idea to stick your cake in the fridge for an hour or two before serving. This gives the icing time to set and keeps it from just melting off. Take note, because it is so much thinner than homemade it will melt even with a completely cooled cake in a semi cool room. That’s just the nature of store bought icing on a stacked cake versus a flat cake.

So there you go! A few tips to make your next layer cake a little bit easier and a little bit prettier!

Tell me lovelies, what’s your favorite thing to bake during the holiday season?

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