Hi! I've been reading so much on these boards and have finally decided to try making a cake.

I baked 4 9 inch round layers yesterday, and have just iced and filled them today. I used the Wilton whipped Icing mix that you just add ice water to. BTW, it is delicious!!! Anyway, I am now going to attempt to make buttercream or homemade whipped topping since I used all the Wilton stuff already and I still need to decorate it.

So, my question is: Should I put my cake in the refrigerator for now? (This will basically be an all day event for me since I am doing this around my 7 month olds schedule.) The filling is cherry pie filling.

I want this cake to come out nice, it's for my mom and dad's anniversary and I want it to be special for them. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I want it to come out nice. So, what should I do? We plan to eat it tonight around 6:30pm.

Thanks so much!!!

One more question....are you supposed to ice the tops of each layer before you put the filling in, or just make a dam? Thanks again!

Just make a dam around the outside edge to keep the filling from oozing out. No need to ice between the layers when using a filling. The dam will hold in the filling and hold the two layers together pretty well too. Just remember that a little filling goes a long way, so don't put too much in or it'll squish over your dam anyway (take it from me ).

Thanks so much for the quick replies!!!!

I did put a thin layer on the cakes first before making the dam and filling them...hopefully it stays nicely. So far so good.

I am pretty impressed with my smoothing abilities if I do say so myself!! LOL Whipped icing isn't that bad to smooth.

I am going to make decorators buttercream in a little while and then try to make some decorations for the cake. I will definitely write "happy anniversary" on the cake, and I am going to attempt some type of borders and maybe flowers. EEEEKKKK! Do you have to make the flowers on flower nails, or can you just make them directly on the cake?

Thanks for the help!!!

For roses, you need to make them using the nail. I also freeze mine before trying to put them on the cake.

Drop flowers can be piped right onto the cake.

I just wanted to say thank you so much for helping me out today! The cake came out beautiful. This was my very first cake. First time leveling, filling, making buttercream and whipped icings, making roses, and everything else involved in this cake. I didn't have any leaf tips so I made do with what I had, mind you I did this cake with just one 8" pastry bag! Definitely have to get more bags!!!

I am going to try and post a couple of pictures so you can see. Thanks again!

You ARE putting us on, aren't you? You made this great looking cake, your very first cake, baked, iced, decorated with very good roses and other flowers, wrote the greeting perfectly, everything...? Janice

Picture me with my mouth hanging open!

great job

Thank you so much for the nice comments!! I worked so hard on this! And yes, this was my very first cake.

However, when I was 16 I worked at Friendly's (an ice cream shop) and I had to write "Congratulations" or some other type of saying on the pre made ice cream cakes with a Betty Crocker icing tube once in a while. (I loved doing that, too!!!!) But, that's all the "experience" I have.

Thanks again for the compliments!

WOW!!!! Fantastic job! Your roses look way better than mine and I've been at it for about 6 months now! Your a natural!

Wow..that is amazing for being your first cake!! Congratulations!!