i have never done this before and i have a big communion cake coming up this friday and i'm gonna try the wilton book pan first and if that does'nt succeed than a rectangular pan, would it help if i froze the cake to make it easier to fill?
all ideas greatly appreciated
trish

I just use the wilton cake leveler to tort. It is not the greatest, but the Agbay is so expensive. I know others use a long serated bread-like knife, but I just can't keep it level. I've also heard of dental floss and tried that. Cutting the four corners with a knife and then using a long piece of dental floss (clean and new of course) to sort of pull through and criss cross it to cut. Hope that makes sense.

To lift the layer of cake off, your best bet is to get a cookie sheet without edges and use that to get inbetween the layers and then lift off the top. If not a cookie sheet then a strong and clean piece of cardboard.

Good luck

chill not freeze -- if fully frozen too hard to cut. just enough to be firm.

and I dust my no-edge cookie sheet with powdered sugar to make sure layer doesn't stick.

thank you both, i'm gonna get a cookie sheet with no sides and try that as far as lifting, and the dental floss sounds funny but good

Trish

I don't use dental floss - but if a cake is too big for my regular Wilton cake leveler, I use a very clean piece of copper wire - it's the same thickness as the wire on small Wilton leveler. I cut it long and twisted loops on both ends to hook my fingers thru and just pull it thru the cake. I don't have a knife long enough to do a half sheet cake and even if I did, I can't keep it as level as I can a wire.