Okay, maybe I'm just inept but I have the hardest time stacking a larger cake layer on after I have put filling on the bottom one. Am I doing something wrong? I just filled a 9x13 chocolate and had a hard time unwrapping the top layer from its saran wrap and then flopping it on top. It wanted to bend, crack, and stick. I've thought about putting it on a cake board and sliding it on but there is no way it would have slid, too sticky. I've got two more largish cakes to fill (12 and 10) and I know I'm going to have the same issue. I have no problem with anything smaller than 10. What am I missing? Thanks for any advice!

Working with a 9x13 is really pretty easy since it's such a small cake.

Is your top layer partially frozen? That helps in handling it and eliminates the stickiness. When it's partially frozen, it doesnt' want to bend and wiggle like a totally thawed cake. I do all of mine that way.

It concerns me when you say "flopping it" on top of the bottom layer. The visual of that just make me shudder.

Put p.sugar on the board or cookie sheet and the cake will slide right off. Seriously, this is a quick and easy method.

For me, a 9x13 seems big but that's just my inexperience. I don't really mean flopping it on. More that I had to get it out of my hands and onto the bottom layer as quickly as possible before it broke in half! I got caught up putting the kids to bed a little while ago and my layers thawed out a little more than I had wanted. Powdered sugar on the board is a great idea! I keep thinking that sliding them off of a board onto the cake would be the best method but couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it! Just in the nick of time as I am about to put the top of a 12 inch round on! Thanks so much Debi!

I use 2 wilton cake lifters and just slide them under the layer, carry them over to the other layer and place down on cake, removing one then the other lifter from underneath

Powdered sugar didn't work either. Still was too sticky to slide off. Perhaps it was still damp with condensation from thawing out. I have put the 12 inch round back in the freezer and am waiting for it to firm up.

Patty, do you actually set the cake down with the lifters underneath? If so, when you pull them out does it not pull your filling out a little?

I guess I'm just dense that this is difficult for me.

I often use large spatulas ('cause I don't happen to own actual cake lifters ) and yeah, when you slide them back out you may pull out a little filling. So what? Smoosh your dam back in place before you frost. (That's a technical term, "smoosh.")

A thin, rigid spatula can also help you slide a cake off of a board -- use it to push.

I don't actually set the lifters down on the bottom layer but kind of on an angle and yes a little filling comes off under the lifter but it is not a big deal. I have never broken a layer with this method and I don't freeze my layers

I use powdered sugar like debi said.........TONS Of it..........I liberally dust the board with it and then cut the cake layer in half and then slide the powdered sugared board between the 2 layers lifting the top one off. Fill the bottom, then just give the board a little shimmy and the top layer starts to slide back off the powdered board.

You need to use a LOT of sugar......and don't worry, once they're put back together all the sugar you see will melt away as the moist cake hits it and nobody will ever know it was there!!

Debi, no worries! I just don't deal in 9x13 (usually just squares or rounds) and found the elongated shape a bit unwieldy. Oddly, I'm a mom but I can honestly say this may be the first time I've ever baked a 9x13 and its for a grooms cake! I need to get more of the waxy cardboards. I bought some not realizing what they were and I definitely prefer them to regular cardboard. Right now I only have them in 12 inch round.

Patty, I'll have to try the lifters. That sounds like it might work for me. I was just worried about pulling all the filling out from between the cake!
Holly, I do a lot of smooshing! It IS a technical term, of course!

Thanks for your help ladies! Sometimes its the simple things that throw me for a loop. I got all of them filled and they settled over night. I'm a little worried because the 12 inch round has a few cracks in the top layer. They don't go all the way through the layer so I'm hoping it will be okay. Because of that though I am not going to drive all four tiers stacked. I think I'll stack the bottom two and the top two and put them together at the church.