Carving A Pillow Cake

Decorating By Danely81 Updated 29 Sep 2016 , 1:52am by Danely81

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Danely81 Posted 28 Sep 2016 , 2:39pm
post #1 of 5

Hello!


 I have been asked to make a pillow cake and I have a couple of questions I am hoping someone here can help me with.


1.  I am unsure of the pan size I should use, the cake needs to serve 30-35 people and it has to be 2 tiers.  I was considering starting with a 9  (bottom) and 6 or 7 (for top) size pans.  That way I could end up with roughly an 8 and 5.5-6 pillow cake.  Would this be enough?  Or should I start with bigger pans? I dont want to make tons of extra cake if I don't have to. 

2. Normally I cut my cake layers in half and fill, so I end with 3 layers of filling/buttercream. I planned to use a thinner layer of buttercream and coat with ganache. But I am wondering if that would affect stability. Would one layer of filling be best?

3.Lastly, I have  read (though now regret it because it made me nervous) of people only using pound cake for these types of cakes. Is that necessary? Since I am already using ganache would regular cake be ok?



Thank you for your help!




4 replies
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julia1812 Posted 28 Sep 2016 , 3:57pm
post #2 of 5

1) what size are your servings? If party I'd probably use a 10" base.

2) Layers with fillings are fine and ganache will be perfect anyway.

3) I never use pound cake and carved a ton of cakes. For me the import thing is to chill it well before carving it.

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Danely81 Posted 28 Sep 2016 , 7:25pm
post #3 of 5

It is a kid's party but the cake is for adults, children are having cupcakes.  That's why I figured starting with the 9 inch. (Not all the adults have cake). I was just afraid of maybe ending with something much smaller than expected. Some people carve a lot and some don't (I have seen a few videos for reference). So thats what's making me unsure. 


Thank you :)

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Frank68 Posted 28 Sep 2016 , 9:08pm
post #4 of 5

I had to think about this for a second but why not use pillow cake pans ? I've never done one before but it's on my list. I would think it makes the carving situation manageable. 

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Danely81 Posted 29 Sep 2016 , 1:52am
post #5 of 5

I thought about it ... its that those seem to be pricey and I am not sure how often I'd use them again :/ . Also,  I figured carving gives me the change to customize sizes. But determining servings is from carved cakes is  quite difficult (at least for me) lol

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