Is It Just Me Or Do You All Have This Problem?
Decorating By jill27 Updated 30 Apr 2007 , 12:44pm by pastryjen
ugh, this part of cake decorating is so frustrating for me...i hope someone can give me some pointers!
i always do 4 layers of cake and none of them are ever the same size when i stack them....so i start carving the sides to get them flush. well, cakes tend to shrink a bit anyways so that in addition to my carving leaves me with a cake 2 inches smaller than what i wanted! does anyone have any advice on how to prevent this? thanks!
Frosting fixes a lot of ills. Don't worry about if the layers are the same size (width?) the frosting will fill in the gaps and be level.
If you are talking height get a good cake leveler (agbay.... a little pricey but soooo worth it) and then your cakes will always be the exact correct height. www.agbayproducts.com
Magic Line pans will settle that problem. I have no luck with Wilton pans. I did exactly like Price is doing, I bought Magic Line pans one at a time. Now I have just about every pan. Magic Line pans make baking easier! 
thanks you guys!
yes, i'm talking about width. i do have the agbay and i love it! it makes torting so easy : ) so you all are saying all i need to do is get magic line pans and i won't have this problem anymore? that would be wonderful! oh, one thing though, i used smbc. does that make a difference when it comes to icing the cake? i was always under the assumtion that you could get away with NOT trimming the sides of your cakes iced with crusting buttercream but not the same for smbc?
I use smbc exclusively and no not trim the sides of my cakes. My pans are a mix of wilton and magic line and I don't have a really problem with the sizes coming out different. Sometimes it happens though and I just fill it in with smbc. The only thing I trim is if a side happens to be jutting out past the cake board.
What's SMBC? I'm so behind on all the acronyms
I have the same problem but since I'm no good at carving I just fix it with frosting. Maybe I should start saving up for the better pans. 
DA! Thanks! I do need to get up to date on the acronyms!
I love my magic line pans. i just don't have enought of them. I like to bake several cakes at a time. That means I have to use wilton and magic line and may layers arent' always the same. 
I can't wait to have duplicates of all my magic line pans!
I too have magic line pans. My mom gave me a bunch and I bought a bunch on ebay for a good price. I also use bake even stripes on my pans when I make my cakes. It makes them come out perfect everytime. I use to have the same problem until I started using the back even strips.
Good Luck
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