ok so i'm very new to this cake decorating business, but i've found that i absolutely love it! my question: if you're making a sheet cake and another cake out of a shaped pan and you want to put the shaped cake on top of the sheet cake, when do you frost what cake? should i frost the sheet cake first and then put the undecorated shaped cake on top of that and THEN frost the shaped cake? i'm wanting to make a monkey cake and have it laying on top of a sheet cake. im just afraid i'll get my icing colors messed up-any helpful hints would be much appreciated! thanks!

frost each one individually. then stack them.

You may already know this but you will need to have a cake board under your shaped cake. Cut a piece of wax or parchment paper the same size as your cake board and place that on top of your sheet cake where the shaped cake will sit. Then place your shaped cake on the paper. This trick will help you place the cake where you want it and when you lift off the cake board while serving lift off the icing on the sheet cake.

I would frost each cake separately. As with a stacked cake, I would have each cake all decorated except for borders, and any details that cross from one layer to the next. I would probably even support that upper cake with bubble straws when putting it on top.

Make sure the shaped cake is on its own cake board. You can use the shaped pan to trace the outline onto a cake round or foam core. Put some bubble tea straws into the sheet cake to support the weight of the top cake. The cakes might only be 1 layer each but do you really want to risk having the top one smoosh the bottom one.

Kristy

^^ agree. I made a boot cake placed on top of a sheet. Since my boot was covered in fondant (ie, heavy), it had its own cake board and I used dowels under it that were cut at the frosting level of the first layer. I didn't get the height of the dowels exactly right so I piped a border around the boot to hide the small gap.

"You may already know this but you will need to have a cake board under your shaped cake."

I have to disagree about HAVING to have a board under the shaped cake on top of a sheet cake. If you have a single layer sheet cake and a single layer shaped pan cake, you can add the second cake directly on top of the frosted sheet cake not even using a cake board under it! That section of the cake, with 2 layers, will cut and serve like a 2 layer cake, and the other part will be cut and served like the standard sheet cake.

If you dont use a cake board inbetween the 2 cakes then dont decorate the top (monkey) until its placed on the sheet. cake. Just make sure to frost the sheet first, stack the other cake on top and decorate.

thanks everybody for all your help!