I made a superhero 3 tier cake fro a BD party today and it is so crooked. I leveled with a wire level and doweled, etc. Still crooked.... See my pics...
How do you level??? Step by step pls...
Also, how do you trim the sides of a round cake and get them even???
Amanda
I think it's the camera angle. I tried to hide the "crookedness" for my portfolio. The top tier was pitched forward a lot. I played it off to the customer as I was trying to make the superman more visible. The middle tier was a little off too.
Also... how can I center each tier??
My big big question is how to trim down the sides of a round cake evenly??? Surely there is a trick....
Amanda do you use baking strips? They really help the cake bake flatter. If I need to trim I just use a bread knife and flip the trimmed side down onto the board or place filling on it and place other layer on top (cut side down also). If you really want an even cake I would suggest using a level. Good luck!
I have to agree with Discolady, baking strips are awesome! Using those, I've never had to level a cake since.
Amanda, when you refer to leveling a cake, do you mean leveling it by cutting off the dome before you ice it? Or level after you stack it on top of the dowel rods? And I don't know what you mean by trimming the "sides" of a round cake?
I'm sorry to be having a blonde moment, but here's my 2 cents worth based on what I think you mean......
To make sure it's level on the dowel rods, make sure all of your dowel rods are exactly the same height. If you have trimmed your cake a little uneven, at least the next tier will be sitting level if all of the dowel rods are 4.125". I've seen some posts in which folks suggest measuring each dowel rod individually but if you have a tall spot in your base cake, then your top tier will sit a bit higher on that dowel rod .... ergo a crooked cake.
If you are using the Wilton 9" pans that have the flared out side and you're trying to trim the flared out part to get it flat, I freeze the cakes then lay them on it's side (so it's standing up like a wagon wheel) and go around with a sharp paring knife to trim the flared part. It's easy to trim the if cake is partially thawed, but still pretty stiff.
My apologies in advance if I totally misunderstood what you are asking!
I think your cake looks great!! I am having the same problems too - I am going to have to take some advice from the ladies. What are baking strips? (Sorry dumb question probably from a newbie).
no such thing EVER as a dumb question around here!
Wilton makes baking strips that you get wet with cold water and pin them around your cake pans when you bake. This helps the cake bake more evenly. without them, the pan will bake the cake faster closest to the edge and the center takes longer. This is what causes the doming of a cake and causes you to have to trim (wasted cake). The baking strips keep the sides of the pan a little cooler and helps bake the entire cake at a more even temp, resulting in less doming and less trimming.... a more even cake.
i don't ever bake a cake without them. I have a big rubbermaid container that I keep them in and it is full.
If you get a lot of them, I find it easier to find the ones I need since I took a black magic marker and wrote the sizes on the inside, like "10R / 8S" indicating that particular strip will fit a 10" round or an 8" square pan.
Those baking strips are handy but my cake decorating instructor gave me this great tip....
If you are baking a cake larger then 10 inches, put some "cake release on 2 or 3 "flower nails" and put them into your pans equally spaced before the batter goes in, then there is no need for the baking strips at all. They conduct the heat evenly throughout.
It works well and I have yet to have an unbaked cake.
indydebi, In my house there's no such thing as "wasted cake"...LOL Just ask my dh. If he's home when I level a cake he's right there to swoop down and eat whatever I cut off. We both love the moist tops.
Amanda, Your cake looks fine to me. I've never heard of trimming the sides to make them even. I use all straight sided pans though.
hi amanda, i agree, your cake looks fine to me.
this is how i get mine level on top.
as soon as the cake comes out of the oven, i turn it upside down on my glass cutting board, lined with parchment, then put a potholder on top and put something heavy on top of that. i let it sit for ten minutes and then take the cake out and immediately wrap in two layers of plastic wrap (that's more for moistness).
then, when i am frosting the cake, i torte it, then put the top on the bottom and use the nice, level bottom as the top!
i've never had to trim the sides, but i also fill in any uneven parts with frosting and it looks like a winner to me! 
good luck.
my cousin told me that she pushes the cake down immediatly after it comes out of the oven as it is pliable when hot. I have tried this and it works for me. I have not cut a cake top since. She also recommended leveling the cake by: after your cake is removed from the pan and cooled to put cake circles in the pan, put your cake in the pan ontop of the circles(however many it takes to reach the position where you want to cut your cake) and then use the cake pan as a guide for a straight edge by cutting the cake while letting your knife rest on the pan. I have not tried this, but she swears by this if you have to cut it.
hope this was clear enough to understand....
thanks to everyone for the wonderful help on this site as I too am a newbie and LOVE this site!
Hi Amanda,
I am new to this site, but hope I can add to the good advice others have already offerred. The baking strips are wonderful and really do the trick. You can also use an old towel, it will be ruined so make sure you are ready to sacrifice it, cut it into strips and fold it over to make a few layers of strips around the pan. THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART...WET THE TOWELS VERY WET BEFORE PUTTING YOUR STRIPS ON YOUR PAN. The towels will dry out and even turn black around the edges, but will work the same way as the baking strips if you don't have them. You can reuse the towel strips again, just make sure they are very wet before putting them in your oven. On the rare occassions that I have to trim a cake I do it with a serated knife while it is still in the pan, placing the knife flush with the top of the pan and using that to keep it straight. The cut "top" of the cake then becomes the middle or bottom and you put the bottom of the cake on top so that you have a smooth surface to decorate on. Hope this helps!
I have a question to add to this. How do you make a 12" cake level? I have a leveler but it only trims up to a 10" cake. But, a serrated knife would be hard to trim such a big cake level... plus, I don't want to handle it too much because I don't want it to brake. What do you all do in this instance?
I was also wondering if there are any problems when you press the top into the cake? Some of my tops are sooo peaked that I don't think that would work... and if I ever place them upside down they don't sink in on themselves... I would find it scary to push it down.... How does this work? Does the cake become less fluffy?
TIA!
I'm glad this came up, I have a heck of a time getting mine level! 
chen, i have never had a problem with puching the dome down. it makes the cake more moist. it does get a little less fluffy, but i find people like a bit of a denser cake anyway.
with regard to cakes bigger than your leveler, you can always measure with a ruler and place toothpicks around the side and follow the toothpicks with a serated knife.
I have the big leveler also. But I don't know why a person couldn't take a piece of thin wire, fasten it to two dowels on the ends and drag it thru a cake to level it. With the cake still in the pan of course. You'd stay on top of the pan edge and pull it straight accross. I'll try that with my next practice/family cake and report back how it worked. My dh made something like this last year to trim down some 3 wick candles for me, but that's another story.
As for pushing down the domed tops, I don't do that because it makes the cake more dense than I want it. I will turn a slightly domed cake upside down on a cooling rack a few minutes out of the oven and allow it to level itself. Then if I need to I'll use my leveler to trim off enough to get under the browned edge around the top. I want to see a minimun of brown in the middle of my white cakes when they're cut. Nothing goes to waste, since the trimmings are a tread for dh and family. This works well for me and my layers are always a very nice 2" tall.
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