I struggle with getting the tops of my round cakes flat. How do you get them to look like this: http://www.cakecentral.com/article49-Building-The-Cake-Combination-Pillar--Stacked-Construction.html ? They are the perfect height all the way around.
My round cakes seem to be higher in the middle and lower on the sides. How in the world do you make the sides the same height and the top level?
I struggle with getting the tops of my round cakes flat. How do you get them to look like this: http://www.cakecentral.com/article49-Building-The-Cake-Combination-Pillar--Stacked-Construction.html ? They are the perfect height all the way around.
My round cakes seem to be higher in the middle and lower on the sides. How in the world do you make the sides the same height and the top level?
Use Wilton bake even strips.
Use a heating core for larger cakes. Some people swear by using the flower nail but it does not work for me.
Trim the tops of the cake.
Check your oven temperature it might be running hotter than you think.
This is what I do and it works for me. Fill your pans 2/3 to 3/4 full so that the side of the cake comes up to the top rim of the cake pan. Bake at 325 instead of 350. That will help keep the top from doming too much,but if it does dome it should be well above the cake pan rim. In the bigger pans use a heat core or flower nails to help distribute the heat evenly. If you've a dome then level it off with a serated leveler or knife. I then take a small level tool and place it on the cake to see if it is even and if not trim accordingly. When placing the cake on the cake board, place the bottom layer's top onto the board, so that the bottom of the layer becomes the top. Apply filling, then place the bottom of the 2nd cake layer on top of the filling so that this layer's bottom becomes the top. Hope this helps.
After baking the cakes, use a leveler to take off the hump in the middle. Michael's has 2 kinds of Wilton leveler that you can use:
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30D67E-475A-BAC0-5792C543763E855E
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30D68E-475A-BAC0-541667EE11BAE82B
Or if you want to invest in a really good leveler, get the Agbay one:
http://www.agbayproducts.com/
After applying the frosting on the cake, I use a torpedo level from Home Depot to make sure everything is good:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100081915
I'm sorry you all. The day after I started this thread my Dad ended up in the hospital. I stayed with him pretty much 24/7 for 5 days and I'm finally almost caught up on my emails.
I also apologize because I did't word my question very well. 
What I should have said is: when icing a cake how do you get the tops so flat? It's frustrating because I can get the cake tops flat after baking but they're never completely level after I ice/frost them. 
I use a torpedo level from Home Depot to make sure the cake is level after putting on the icing: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100081915
I do this after layering the cake/before crumb coating and after applying the final coat of icing.
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