I am going to be building a whimsical cake for my daughters birthday, but there are only 6 kids coming, so I only need 2 layers, but my question is about the construction. I saw on tv once, the construction of a 2 tiered wedding cake (directly layer on layer), but instead of baking 2 different cakes, 2 different sizes, she simply baked one large round cake as the base, and then took a base and 4 pillars, put the base on the top of the large cake, and cut around the base right through the cake (so the cake now looked like a doughnut), and then she measured and cut the pillars the same height as the large cake, and put the pillars INSIDE the hole in the bottom cake, and the base on top (so the base is now the same height as the cake and basically fills the top of the hole so you don't really know it's there), and then set the round middle part of the original cake that she cut out on top of the base. Now it looks like there's 2 cakes. A large on on the bottom, and a small one on the top... SSSOOOOO... I was wondering if this same technique would work for a whimsical cake? Has anyone tried this method? Any tips or ideas? I don't want to have to take the finished cake apart to cut it. Thanks to all! 
That sounds complicated!! I think it would be hard to get the center out, maybe if it was frozen........... You could use a cake dummy for one layer.
This sounds like a lot of extra work and wasted cake to get the end result, unless I am reading it incorrectly. Wouldn't it be easier to bake a tube cake (even level or shape it to make it more flat), then stick either tiers or something in the center to create a base for your next tier? Tube cake pans come in 5 cup and 10 cups, so you can use the smaller one for less people.
Good luck.
thanks for the timely replies everyone! 
I'm going to do a little more research, and try some stuff out. What's the worst that can happen? The kids will still eat it no matter what it looks like! LOL But I think I'll try a practice one this weekend and see what I can do. Thanks for the tips all!
I used the instructions from this link. The diagram really helps get a visual of what you're doing! HTH!!
http://members.nuvox.net/~zt.proicer/message/saved/TILTEDCAKES.htm
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