I have trouble at times with my corners being sharp or looking the way they're supposed to look straight out of the pan. I'm wondering, do some of you actually carve the cake to make it straight or do yours come out just right? Case in point.... I made a sheetcake for a child's birthday party. The corners were, well, just wimpy looking. I don't know how else to describe it. I could've cut the cake just a bit to make everything very sharp. I didn't. Do some do that, or should I just change something about my baking process? Thanks.

Lisa

I square up the corners with icing, take a straight spatula and hold at the end of the corner while taking another one and smoothing the side of the cake so that you run one knife passed the other to square off the corner.

Make sure you are getting your cakes flat before you stack them. Bake at 325 degrees at the most and make sure you do not overfill your pans. You can take a clean dry towel and gently push down on any"hump" that is on the cake right after it comes out of the oven.

When you ice the cakes, place a little extra dab of icing on the top of the cake in each corner.
Smooth the sides, then pull the flat side of a plastic bowl scraper or a spatula across the cakes from the corners to the center, keeping your blade straight. The icing can fill out the corner and you can make a clean straight corner on your cakes.

Sometimes I will smooth the icing from the bottom of the cake to the top instead of from side to side to help on the corners.

Thanks for the responses. I'll give these a shot!

Lisa