So I am new to carving cakes. I have only cut square cakes into shapes, but nothing else.

I want to make a topsy turvy cake for my brother's 24th birthday on Saturday. I have a couple questions.

How do you get your cake to be carvable? Meaning the density of the cake? I always find my cakes to be very moist and soft, which most people like, but I am not sure if that is good when you are carving.

Any help would be great!
Thanks!

Here's what I've found on here. HTH!

http://www.cakecentral.com/article1-Instructions-For-Building-A-Whimsical-Tilted-Cake.html

are you using box mix cakes? If so you need to research this site for "cake mix extender recipes" until you have time to devise your "from scratch recipes" or you may want to stay with the extender recipes...many people do on this site. The WASC is a perfect place to start. Always and I mean always freeze your cakes (or at least chill them very well).
Countrygirl28 is right. Thats a great way to do Topsy Turvey there are a few other ways that you can do this technique.

Since you said your new heres a few more quick tips... a turntable is a must. Invest in a Wilton or Ateco one (if you plan on doing more cakes in the future). For your Fondant - stay away from the Wilton brand (too chemical tasting). I love Satin Ice brand (for fondant) and Choco-pan (for chocolate fondant). Learn (when you have time) to make fondant yourself and MMF.
Ok this is barely the tip of the iceberg...I could go on forever....

Ok this may be a silly question, but in that tutorial she mentions something about when she frosted it right after the cake was cut, she had crumbs everywhere. How can I prevent that? I still don't get the whole crumb coat idea...when I added one I still got crumbs everywhere! Tips on the best way to do it, especially when you've got a freshly cut/carved cake?

First - if you have got the time, let the cake rest a while - half an hour or about it. Stick it in the fridge or freezer again if you can.
After this: Take a large brush and brush the crumbs off or clean it very lightly with edge of paper towel. You want to remove any loose crumbs from the cake.
Crumb coat: try press (lightly) the icing against the cake. Get small layer of icing on the cake and smooth or scrape the excess - do not scrape and coat! The secret is light pressure. You want to cover the crumbs with buttercream and not press them through buttercream.

the topsy turvey is going to have quite a bit of crumbs because you have to "well out" your mid and bottom tier (given you are doing a 3 tier cake). But get rid of that as Majka suggests above - its imperative.

In addition to the thin coat Majka talks about: make sure it has a chill on it when cutting and carving. The most important thing IMHO is to make sure you have a sturdy enough cake (not the kind thats going to fall apart before the knife even touches it) and a fantastic support system. Also I finally last year started using an icer tip (found at any craft store with a large pastry bag) and I really like that now over doing just the spatula-frosting method. Try both ways and see which one you like - its a personal preference thing.

I'd either do
1. pound cake
2. froze the cake
or both in needed.

ashk36, try a different knife maybe? I love to carve cakes and have found the right knife is a big helper, plus when you cut, cut in one smooth action don't be too slow about it, every hesitation will cause you crumbs.