I just done a corset cake last night and it took me FOEVER to trim the cake board to fit.
Now, I already had to cake on the board and trimmed like 1/2 around it...I thought I was never going to get it cut out.
I thought about taking the cake off, but I was afraid to break it, since I had to carve it. Plus, it was the WASC, and it was already stuck to the board...
Any suggestions or tips???? someone have some secret tools they use? Plus I'm a lefty and so, the back of my hand is up against the cake. Might not be as bad for a righty...just thinking out loud..

I use foam core and cut it with a serrated knife. It's really pretty easy.

If it has to fit exactly under a carved cake, I trim the board before I crumbcoat it. If it is just going to be a baseboard, I cover the edges in a strip of fondant to "nice" it up and then pin ribbon around the edges.

What did you use as a cutting instrument? I use a box knife and always use foam core as my cake board. That way, whatever shape you are using it's easy to trim the board down if needed. HTH!

??? about the foam boards, do you put your cake directly on it or do you put it on the cardboard cake board first? I use the cardboard cake boards and trim it down if needed.
I was usring a razor blade and did not have any icing on the cake. But, it difficult because, my hand is touching the sides of the cake. I ice my cakes out to the edge of the boards, so if I have to trim one, it approx 1/2 out from the side of the cake.

I found the best tool to cut mine. I just draw the shape I want and cut it out. It only takes a few moments. The first time was a little harder, but then it got easier.
The tool is sorta of like a drill except you insert little blades into it. I will find out what it is called. It has a blade that you can use for Styrofoam.

Justbeck101 - are you talking about a Dremel? They have rotary blades & the blades are interchangeable. (HTH!)

I use foam core board also. I put the cake directly on the board, it has a coating on it so its not like putting it on Styrofoam. I get it in posterboard size sheets at Michaels.

I cut it with an exacto knife, and it cuts very easily. Just make sure you dont cut through and mark up your wood table like I did the first time . OOOPS!

Ditto. I put the cake directly on the foam core board and trim around it with a steak knife when I need to trim intricate shapes.

Otherwise, I cut out circles with a bread knife to use them as my cake boards. They go under every tier and are used as my base board.

I tried exacto knifes and they are just too tedious; so I tried a regular sharp bladed knife and that worked fine, but would get stuck and make a high-screeched noise. Then one day I was getting ready to work on a cake at my mom's house and forgot my knife, so I tried her bread knife and it cut so flippin' easily!

I don't worry about rough edges because I cover the edges of the baseboard in fondant and then wrap with ribbon. Rough edges under other tiers are covered by the crumbcoat.

Thanks, I'll have to ck out those foam boards at Michaels. Are they in the cake section or the craft section?

Thanks fellow cc'ers...

it's my understanding that foam core board is not food safe and should be covered. sharon zambito states this in her stacking cakes dvd. i cut mine with the makin hot knife (love it!) then cover it in contact paper which is why i was curious about this thread. with a situation like the op had where she needed her cake as a guide to cut her board how would you then cover it? hmmm...

I don't see how it wouldn't food safe. If cardboard is food safe... Cakes don't seep into it and it's easy to slice cake on top of and remove the servings. No sogginess. Duff uses it!

Duff also uses that Preval sprayer that isn't food safe. I love that thing! I used one until I got my airbrush.
What's a makin hot knife?

I put my cake on a single layer cardboard. Then pull the crumb coated cake slightly off the counter, and use one of those Xacto kind of knives where you can pull the whole blade out to make it longer...and then go along the edge of the cake board (gentle sawing motion with very sharp blade) while its hanging over the side of the counter.

Then I wrap my display board and use double sided carpet tape to attach the cake/cardboard to the display board.

The tool I use is a black and decker zip saw. I am sure there are probably better ways to cut this, but I own it already and it had never been used!

But, you could not use this when the cake was on the board.

Not all cardboard is food safe! I would never put a cake directly on cardboard that wasn't labelled food-safe, or directly on foam core. I cover foam core with wrapping paper to match the theme, and then food-safe cellophane.

why not cut a template out of cardboard/bristolboard for the shape of the cake that you are going to be cutting out, in this case for the corset, then you can use it to cut out the cake and trace around it on your board so you can then cut out the board before putting your cake on it, you can then keep the template for later use.