Whats The Secret To Stacking Buttercream Cakes?
Decorating By sjbeatty8 Updated 16 Jun 2009 , 4:32am by __Jamie__
I am getting to the point that I HATE doing stacked cakes in anything but fondant.
It never fails they dont land centered on the layer below, they are crooked or I scrap the frosting trying to stack them.
What are the secrets??? I have to be missing some wonderful secret to make this not so stressful.
TIA
They don't "land" centered? 
You're not just holding them above the tier and dropping them are you? 
(ok, I'm kidding!!)
I eyeball mine when I'm placing it. I have my icing spatula under the cake and use it to gently set the cake down. I then check all around to make sure it's centered. If not, I use the spatula to gently LIFT and move the cake .... don't scoot it or slide it as you may move one of the dowels, which would be bad ... very bad.
If you are having a problem eyeballing it, here's another idea. Let's say you're putting a 6" cake on top of a 10" cake. Take a 6" cardboard circle and lay it on top of the 10" cake, centering it. When you're happy with the centering, GENTLY press on the outer edges of the cardboard. What you'll end up with is a slight indentation/marking on top of the 10" cake to show you where to place the 6" cake.
If you use the SPS system, there's no guess work whatsoever (I thought I'd get that in before leahs popped in and told you the same thing! 
)
If you choose to mark a lower tier with the outline of a cardboard circle, you can just leave it there that way there's no chance that you'll accidentally knock over any of your support dowels and you can slide it around or scoot away until you're happy with the positioning before removing your knife. I'd cut a 6" cardboard down a little first to about 5" if placing a 6" cake (with 6" circle) directly onto the lower tier. You should also attach a 5" circle of waxed paper to the bottom of that circle with a smear of buttercream so when it's disassembled to be cut and served the icing remains on the cake instead of sticking to the circle. (a good idea under plastic plates too, because no one wants to eat the bald piece of cake!) Another benefit to using the double cardboard... Have you seen just how nasty one circle looks when the cake is served? It will be wet and flimsy from all of the buttercream grease that has soaked into it. Good luck on your next stacked!
Maybe try this link http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=how+to+stack+a+cake&aq=f - it's the one called How to stack a cake..my way!
Or just go to You Tube and type in "how to stack a cake" in the search engine.
I'm so glad I'm not the only person having trouble stacking buttercream cakes with out messing up the BC. I've tried to use my icing spatula, but that is not enough support so I have to use my hands under it too. It never fails, when I go to put the cake on, it wobbles and I end up sticking my hand right in it. I've even thought of crumb coating each cake and not doing my final coat until its all stacked. 
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