This question has probably been asked before, I just don't know what to call it. (Jan, maybe you could do a little link magic for me?)
My son wants a construction themed birthday cake for his birthday next month. I'm still trying to come up with a fun design (ideas, anyone?) but I'm considering 3 tiered round cakes (like 10-8-6) that have "ramps" curving up the side of each tier. I've seen this done on cakes before, although not construction ones, but I'm not sure how its done. Do you bake the layers larger and just carve it, or is there an easier way? Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I'll keep trying to find a picture. TIA!
Ah, here's that picture I remembered seeing a while back. It's jsmith's groom's cake. Awesome design!! I would like to use the same basic shape for my construction cake. In the comments, JSmith wrote it was a carved cake (carved when frozen), as I had suspected. Anyone have additional tips for attempting this? I've never carved a cake before. Thanks!
okay....if you go look in my pics at the piano keyboard cake you'll see that I did the same thing. I did carve the cakes about 1/2 frozen. It was a 9 and 12 inch. I put a 6 inch cake pan on top of the 9 inch to gauge where to carve for a 3 inch wide keyboard. Then I did the same with the 12 inch cake, using a 9 inch pan as a guide.
Hope that helps!
Jodie
Anyone have additional tips for attempting this? I've never carved a cake before. Thanks!
- Use a steak knife. You'll have an easier time controlling it than a large knife, and you don't need to carve off THAT much.
Have a bowl waiting to receive the scraps as you peel them off.
Use toothpicks to plan out where you'll carve, so you can carve from point to point instead of trying to carve it entirely freehand and feeling like you've ruined it when it doesn't look right--because it WILL go through a stage where it doesn't look right, before it settles in to looking right.
Torte and/or fill your cakes, but don't crumbcoat them, before you freeze. You'll just get sticky, and you'll have to crumbcoat where you carved, anyway.
Thanks everyone for the great tips. I didn't freeze them, but the toothpick tip was a lifesaver. Thanks, Varika. I made my practice cake the night before my DS started preschool. (It was a bit of a mess being my first time with carving and with IMBC, but that's what practice cakes are for, right?) 
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1256883
The birthday cake ended up not being quite what I wanted (the oven broke that week, so my baking schedule got all messed up and I ran out of time), but everyone at the party loved it and I had fun making it.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1266009
Thanks everyone for helping me out. I never would have been brave enough to try this without all your ideas. It seemed really intimidating, but I found out it's actually pretty easy and is one of those fabulous tricks where it looks like it was much harder than it was. 
I've wondered about this technique. So, do you carve one regular 4" tall cake & just carve away or do you keep your 6" round & add to the side of it? I know it's probably an optical illusion, but I'm totally not following. Sometimes it hurts that I'm a visual person. 
It totally is an optical illusion. I followed the directions someone put on their picture. I went in 2" increments. So I baked a 6" cake and placed a 4" circle at the edge to use as a guide for carving. Then I baked a 10" cake for the bottom and put an 8" circle at the edge to carve around. So what you get is the "illusion" of a 4-inch cake with a ramp that sticks out to 6 inches on top of the "illusion" of an 8-inch cake that sticks out to 10 inches. Clear as mud? Anyway, try it. You'll probably be surprised. It looks much harder than it was. Definitely use a small, sharp knife (like the steak knife that was mentioned) and stick in toothpicks down where the ramp will be to mark where you want to cut. Let us know how it goes!
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