I am making my in laws an anniversary cake. I plan to do a stacked 10, 8, 6. Tonight I baked a 10 inch round to play around, I cut it in half and put choc. frosting in between the layers and on the outside. I plan to use BC for the real deal but the cake itself just seemed so small....do you think I should bake 2 10 inch pans and layer btw those then stack?

Also how does everyone get their cakes so squared off looking? By cutting the top to be very flat?

Thanks for any advice!

I always do two layers for cake with filling or icing in between. If the cake is a very dense cake and doesn't rise a whole lot, then I will somtimes do three or even four layers. I like my cakes to be nice and high. And yes, you need to level the tops of each layer. Be sure to put the bottom layer right side up, ice or fill and then put the top layer right side down so you actually have the bottom of the layer on top. That way, you'll have a nice flat top to work with and should have relatively few crumbs.

Good luck,
Yvette

Yes, if you're using a 2" tall cake pan, you will need to stack two cake layers to get a standard 4" finished cake.

If you have a 3" pan, you can torte the one cake layer and have a 4" finished cake.

For more info on stacking/tiering, cake/frosting amounts, etc.:

http://www.countrykitchensa.com/ckideas/cake_decorating.aspx

HTH