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To bring this back to the issue at hand...
Improve your boards, either hot glue 3-4 rounds together, cover in fondant, and put a ribbon around it OR get the nicer 1/2" drums that come in either gold, silver or white from GSA and trim with ribbon. I personally feel that self-covered boards with the foil stuff looks homey, not necessarily professional. You could do that, though, and also trim out with ribbon.
Taller tiers...I aim for around 5" once all the icing and fondant is put on. That seems to be the norm anymore as the 4" tall ones seem a bit squat. If that means baking another layer...then bake another layer. Or you can torte to get a little more height.
Your bow has the toothpick under it than you can see. I have never made a bow with a toothpick, so this may be something that I am not aware of. There are soooo many ways to make different styles of bows and they seem to always stress me out. Check out some tutorials, if you haven't already. I am considering that as well.
Writing....for a really professional look you can buy things called tappits or clicksticks that make letters a breeze after a little playing around with them, that is. I hated them at first and now I love them because my writing on cakes STINKS!!
Hope that helps!
AHow do you guys do the height? How many lauers of cake do you usually put in to one tier?
AThe bottom has 3 but top only 2 I baked 3 for the top tier originally but thought it was going to look way to big..
How do you guys do the height? How many lauers of cake do you usually put in to one tier?
It depends on the cake ...I used to 2 but i never got the height I wanted. So now I do 3..by the time I'm finished the height is a little more than 5" Tall. I think thats a bit more nice looking when the tiers are taller. But Im also considering how really tall pieces of cake look on the plate. So i try not to make it too tall
Standard 2" Magic Line pans. I usually collar the larger pans so they bake up a bit past the edge, but smaller pans do it naturally without spilling over. Two layers, both slightly over two inches tall each, there's more than 4 inches already. Once the filling is in, you're near to five inches. Once you've iced it, you've reached the five inches tall, or passed it. Sometimes I torte and make all the pretty layers of icing and cake, but rarely.
A[IMG ALT=""]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3192745/width/350/height/700[/IMG] This caje has only 2 layers for each tier. I though it had okay height. How do you add a little more height with out adding a whole nother layer of cake wich could end up making it look way to big.
AHehe theres a bulge in this too. It was my first 3 tier cake.
AMy cakes dont go over the pan like that. Instead they dome and that makes me loose alot of height too
ATo fix the dome you can bake at a lower temp for longer...or use bake even strips. If you Google bake even.there's all kinds of duplicates you can make yourself...fixing the dome will solve the "height problem"
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Standard 2" Magic Line pans. I usually collar the larger pans so they bake up a bit past the edge, but smaller pans do it naturally without spilling over. Two layers, both slightly over two inches tall each, there's more than 4 inches already. Once the filling is in, you're near to five inches. Once you've iced it, you've reached the five inches tall, or passed it. Sometimes I torte and make all the pretty layers of icing and cake, but rarely.
Sorry if this is off topic. I have never heard of not torting the cake before. Is this the standard? Are you all not torting? Am I the only one who torts all my cakes?
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Sorry if this is off topic. I have never heard of not torting the cake before. Is this the standard? Are you all not torting? Am I the only one who torts all my cakes?
I always torte all of my cakes as well.
Two standard cakes in 2" high pans results in a finished cake with 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of BC/filling.
I feel non-torted cakes are just too big a chunk of cake.
I bake the way AZCouture does with the collared pans, with two 2" cakes (though sometimes they end up more of 1 5/8", but then I do torte for four layers of cake and three layers of filling. I don't like a huge amount of filling, so I keep the height of the fillings low. I end up with 4 3/4-5" tiers.
I don't torte either. I do two layers of cake and a fatter layer of filling. If I had an Agbay I might give it a whirl, but generally speaking I like a bigger ratio of cake to fillings and buttercream.
I torte for wedding cakes (or any cake over 2 tiers) for a fancier looking presentation.
For party cakes, I don't.
Price them differently as well. I am thinking of torting all and charging the same price across the board but worry that my loyal party cake customers will not be so appreciative!
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I don't torte either. I do two layers of cake and a fatter layer of filling. If I had an Agbay I might give it a whirl, but generally speaking I like a bigger ratio of cake to fillings and buttercream.
Is an Agbay the layer cutter thingy?
I used to never torte bc I would BUTCHER my cakes and couldn't cut my cakes straight all the way around.
Over the years, I just kept trying and now do it in a way that produces pretty consistent results.
I hold my long serrated knife as one should hold a knife and crook my pinky finger at a certain angle and while keeping my pinking firmly on the countertop, without changing the angle or moving the knife, I spin the cake around in a circle and deeply (1/4-1/2") score around the cake. From there, I just keep turning the cake til I get all the way through.
First I level the cake in same way, just keeping the pinky more extended. Sounds odd, I suppose, but it works and I can do it pretty quickly now.
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Yes.
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This is me. LOL.
But I also just like more cake than filling I guess. I do tend to pile on the buttercream so like AZ said, I like to have a balance with everything. I do like having three layers of cake and two layers of filling, but I don't have three of each pan size so I almost never do cakes like that (only for family).
A
Original message sent by BeesKnees578
Is an Agbay the layer cutter thingy?
I used to never torte bc I would BUTCHER my cakes and couldn't cut my cakes straight all the way around.
Over the years, I just kept trying and now do it in a way that produces pretty consistent results.
I hold my long serrated knife as one should hold a knife and crook my pinky finger at a certain angle and while keeping my pinking firmly on the countertop, without changing the angle or moving the knife, I spin the cake around in a circle and deeply (1/4-1/2") score around the cake. From there, I just keep turning the cake til I get all the way through.
First I level the cake in same way, just keeping the pinky more extended. Sounds odd, I suppose, but it works and I can do it pretty quickly now.
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This sounds like the same method I use; it works well for me!
I hope this isn't terribly inappropriate, but I just have to show you what is being passed off as acceptable at the bakery in my town. This picture showed up in my newsfeed this morning from a friend entering to win something from this bakery on Facebook. Check out their nice even layers:
Nice...since I love chocolate, I would be pretty irked!
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This sounds like the same method I use; it works well for me!
I hope this isn't terribly inappropriate, but I just have to show you what is being passed off as acceptable at the bakery in my town. This picture showed up in my newsfeed this morning from a friend entering to win something from this bakery on Facebook. Check out their nice even layers:
The Agbay was a must for me - Even my husband said GET IT - LOL Unless my cakes rise higher than the pan so I can run a knife across the top edge, I butcher it! Oh how I butcher it - hahaha
Now I use Agbay to level and torte when the cake call for it. - Very fast
A
Original message sent by as you wish
[quote name="BeesKnees578" url="/t/768464/am-i-good-enough/90#post_7488256"]Is an Agbay the layer cutter thingy?
I used to never torte bc I would BUTCHER my cakes and couldn't cut my cakes straight all the way around.
Over the years, I just kept trying and now do it in a way that produces pretty consistent results.
I hold my long serrated knife as one should hold a knife and crook my pinky finger at a certain angle and while keeping my pinking firmly on the countertop, without changing the angle or moving the knife, I spin the cake around in a circle and deeply (1/4-1/2") score around the cake. From there, I just keep turning the cake til I get all the way through.
First I level the cake in same way, just keeping the pinky more extended. Sounds odd, I suppose, but it works and I can do it pretty quickly now.
Wow, that chocolate "layer" looks like it might be the hump cut off the top of the cake.
Before I got my agbay, I would lever against the top of the pan, and use a strong, fishing line, or dental floss to torte my cakes. Before separating, I would use a dab of buttercream to mark the layers so I would stack them back the way they came, since it wasn't perfect.
There are so many tricks to getting layers even, it's just silly that cakes go out looking like that.
The first shop I worked at we would use cake drums in a pan, underneath the layer, to raise it above the top of the pan. Then rest the knife on the pan and slice through. Totally jury-rigged, haha, but they still came out even and didn't cost an extra cent.
But it's the Agbay that made this possible.Quote by @%username% on %date%
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