I'm making my first tiered cake and I'm running into trouble - please help. I have baked two 8' round cakes and two 6' rounds. My first question is, do I slice each cake and create 3 layers of filling? Or just one big layer? If you do just one large layer how do you insure that is a thick layer. Secondly, do you need to prepare the cake that will be placed on top of the filling to prevent the cake from soaking up the filling??

I'm planning on using a peanut butter buttercream filling and then covering the cake in fondant.

What people usually do is, slice 1 2-inch cake and fill it. Slice the other 2-inch cake and fill it. Then put more filling on top of the first 2-inch cake and place the second cake on top. This way you get cake, filling, cake, filling (middle one), cake, filling, cake.

You don't have to really prep the cake to prevent soaking, it should be fine. I hope I was able to explain clearly enough!

Hi,

It is your preference or if for a customer (what the customer ordered) as far as torting (cake/filling/cake/filling/cake) goes. You can do it either way, tort (like above) or level off all of your layers and fill to make tiers (2-8" rounds: cake layer/filling/cake layer) same goes for the 2-6" rounds.

Your filling shouldn't soak thru your cake unless it is a thin or loose filling like some Jams or fresh fruit fillings.

Also, make a dam or buttercream around the layer that your placing the filling in to ensure that the filling will not ooze out of the sides of your cake layers.

Be sure to place dowel/straw supports in your bottom tier to prevent your top tier from crushing it.

Hope this helps. Good luck.