I am fairly new to cake decorating and wondered: How do you serve cakes that are stacked or those cute whimsical cakes that sit inside each other? Does each layer have to be disassembled before cutting?

Also, I am having trouble with buttercream roses. No matter what I do the edges crack. I have tried different consistencies, tips, pressure and they still crack! Any suggestions?

I have wondered about serving those whimsical cakes my self.....

Other posts I've read indicated that tiered cakes should be disassembled before cutting/serving.

I have problems with rose edges cracking also. I haven't done it yet but the next time I think I will add a little corn syrup or piping gel to the portion of buttercream set aside for roses.

Hope this helps.

Sweetbaker thanks for the idea. I hadn't thought of using piping gel, let me know how it turns out.

...regarding the roses cracking...if you've already tried various consistencies and still have problems, maybe you're going too fast? try that and see...I had that problem until my instructor made me slow down on the curve of the petals. HTH

One thing I have found that sometimes causes my roses to have jagged edges----- too much air in my icing.(air bubbles) Like from stirring in color or over mixing.
I hope this helps.

Thanks everyone. I have noticed some air in my bags, will try to eliminate that. Any helpful hints on that?

Also, about serving the whimsical cakes: if the well method is used (cutting into the layers and setting the next tier inside), then when you go to serve it do you just reach in and lift it out so you can cut it? Guess I am still a little confused on the how to's......

I haven't done a whimsey cake yet, but I imagine you could use standard wedding cake cutting techniques...

option 1... separate the tiers and cut each separately... necessary if you have column-separated cakes

option 2... if your cakes are stacked (or recessed in) you can start with the bottom tier... cut the outer ring of cake first (follow the outline of the tier above it) then cut that ring into servings... that ways you can make the taller pieces a little narrower, and the shorter ones wider. Do the same thing with the next tier up, and so on. At this point you can get your fingers in there to lift off each tier.

option 3... cut up the top tier until it is gone, then remove the board and cut the next one down... this is fine if you only have one flavour of cake, and you're confident that your supports will hold up to the pressure of cutting the cake above it!

Thanks alot for all the tips! I'm making my first whimsy cake for Valentine's day and taking to the office. Hoping to generate some orders for future events this way. I'll post pictures once I'm done!