Ok I am such a newbie. What is considered a layer cake is it one cake that you cute and torte or is it two cakes put on top of each other. Thank you all for all of your help. I am learning so much from this site.

Thank You

Most of us don't deal with the term 'layer cake'. Instead decide how many servings are needed and make a cake accordingly. It can be one 2" layer split & filled or 2 layers with filling between them.
A cake to serve approx 20 people can be a 12x8x2 sheet cake; or a 10x2 round; or an 8x8x2 square. Each of those sizes uses the batter of one cake mix.

I have done both of what you just mentioned above. I have a 4 inch deep 8 inch round cake pan that I baked a tall cake in and then cut into 3 layers and filled (chocolate cake in my pictures)

However, baking a deep cake like that takes a LOOOOOONG time. So I prefer to bake 2 or 3 separate cakes in 2 inch deep pans. After the refrigerate over night I then level each one of them and then stack and fill them. I've been told that the standard cake/tier height is 4 inches so 2 thick layers or 3 or 4 thinner layers should be fine!

I would consider both of these methods to be a "layered cake" because it has multiple layers and fillings. A non layered cake would be a cake with no internal fillings.......just icing on the outside and completely cake on the inside. A sheet cake would be considered non layered.

HTH

-Amanda

Everything you need to know to make, decorate and assemble tiered/stacked/layer cakes:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-605188-.html

Above super thread has popular CC recipes for crusting American buttercreams, several types of fondant and doctored cake mix (WASC and other flavor variations) - and so much more!

HTH