I'm learning so much from all of you here and the tutorials!!!
My question now is how do you all get such flat tops to your cakes? I'm still just using cake mixes but am thinking of trying my hand at making a cake from scratch...not sure if that will help or not, but anytime I do make a cake it's puffy enough on the top that it's difficult to stack them.
I attempted to cut it once...but it came out completely crooked!! What is the trick???
Thanks much y'all!!! I love learning from you folks!!!
Yep. Like leily said, you have to level the cakes. Some use the 'push down' method, some cut off the tops. You can also buy an Agbay leveler if you can afford one.
I attempted to cut it once...but it came out completely crooked!! What is the trick???
It wouldn't be crooked if you cut off the top while it's still in the pan. Use the top of the pan as a guide to run your knife over. If the cake doesn't bake up tall enough to get an entirely flat surface, you can add cardboard circles below the cake to jack it up, then put it all back into the pan and slice the top off.
I attempted to cut it once...but it came out completely crooked!! What is the trick???
It wouldn't be crooked if you cut off the top while it's still in the pan. Use the top of the pan as a guide to run your knife over. If the cake doesn't bake up tall enough to get an entirely flat surface, you can add cardboard circles below the cake to jack it up, then put it all back into the pan and slice the top off.
Wow, I would NEVER have thought about that!!! An ingenius idea for sure!!!
I attempted to cut it once...but it came out completely crooked!! What is the trick???
It wouldn't be crooked if you cut off the top while it's still in the pan. Use the top of the pan as a guide to run your knife over. If the cake doesn't bake up tall enough to get an entirely flat surface, you can add cardboard circles below the cake to jack it up, then put it all back into the pan and slice the top off.
Wow, I would NEVER have thought about that!!! An ingenius idea for sure!!!
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That is the method that Indydebi has suggested many times. My problem is I never seem to have the right size cardboard circles when I need them.. 
I think getting a level cake from a scratch recipe is harder.. there is so much chemistry involved to get it to bake right.
If you end up with a domed cake, then yeah, level it.. But I get flat cakes from Pillsbury mixes when I bake in my Magic Line rounds. (With and without baking strips.) Unfortunately, Pills doesn't make Red Velvet and their German Choco that I could color red is nowhere to be found in my area. 
I haven't been able to get a flat sheet cake tho, even using flower nails and baking strips, but I can come pretty close. I suspect this is because my sheet pans are Wilton (decorator preferred) and all my rounds are Fats and Magic, and higher gauge aluminum, thus baking more evenly.
I also think that when I add dairy (yogurt or sour cream) to the mix for extra moistness, that it makes the cake dome/explode more.
If the cake is only slightly domed, I just flip it over on a board and let the weight of the cake flatten it out.
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