I can't cut a cake evenly to save my life. help!!! any ideas ? TIA 
Well an agbay would definitely help, but if you don't want to spend that much money yet.....
You could always use toothpick measure from the bottom up space evenly and use them as a guide for cutting. You could put cake rounds in your pan to required height so that when you place your cake in it would be raised and use the top edge of the pan as your guide (I used to do this when I needed to level the top sometimes). You could also use dental floss/fishing wire to torte your cake.
I was taught to do them freehand--not too easy to explain, but I'll try.
I put the cake, on it's individual board, on top of my turntable (I usually put a piece of no-skig under the cake. I mark the cake from top to bottom on one side with a swipe of buttercream so that when I put it back together it will match. I take a long serrated cake knife and hold it parallel to the cake. I press down on the top of the cake, turning the turntable while pressing, and making a shallow cut with the knife (the center of the knife, NEVER the tip). I go all the way around the cake with the shallow cut and then go deeper as I continue to turn, making the first cut line deeper and deeper.
When you get to the middle, you feel the drag on the knife stop. You continue to turn the cake as you remove the knife.
Take off the top, fill, and replace the top so that the buttercream swipe on the side matches up.
HTH
Rae
Great idea BlakesCakes! I to have trouble torting.
i was taught to do it with sewing thread... you get a looooong peice, and put around the cake and cross the strings like you are going to tie a bow, then tighten it untill you peirce the cake. then you use the string to saw thru the cake... it comes out clean, and very little crumbs. thats the way my gramma taught me... for what its worth.
Sounds like you need a guide. There are a couple of options.
I once had to torte a 12x18. My first time. I elevated the cake 1" (stacked some cardboards until the cake was 1" (+/-) higher. Then I sat the cake pan next to the cake. The cake was about 1" taller than the cake pan and as I torted the cake, the knife was gliding along the edge of the pan, keep the knife level and even. I got a perfectly torted cake.
For smaller cakes, you can put cardboards inside the cake pan until the cake is about 1" taller than the pan, then use the edge of the pan as a guide and cut the top off. This one works like a charm!
Scoutmamma, thanks so much for the sewing thread idea because the wilton cutter I have....well for lack of a better word really sucks! I am going to try the thread idea tonight when I do my hubby's b-day cake.......thanks so much.....I love the great ideas people on CC have!!
I do it like Blakescakes and it works real well.
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