I am planning to make a tapered 3-tier cake. I think I want to use 10-8-6 pans. I saw the inspiration cake in the photos recently (forget whose it was, but it was blue, green, yellow, done in BC, and totally awesome!!), and it was made with those pan sizes.

I've never tapered a tier, or carved any cake before, so I have some questions y'all may be able to answer.

1. What is a good total amount to carve away for the taper? Would you carve the same off for each tier, regardless of size? For example, if I reduce the 10" by 2 inches, would I also reduce the 6" by 2 inches?

2. I will have to work on this in stages, as I have a day job (dang it). Can I fill the layers with BC and freeze the tiers ahead?

3. Is it better to carve while still frozen?

4. What kind of knife would you use? A bread knife?

5. Any other words of wisdom?

TIA

C'mon ... I know someone out there can help... I've seen photos...!!

(Just giving myself a little bump)

Unfortunately I can't answer your question, but would also like to know.

Hopefully we can find someone out there willing to share their knowledge with us.

When I do tapered tiers (which I do a lot) I carve before I fill, it makes it easier and less messy.
Just make sure to cut a little notch down the length of the cake so when you fill and stack them they go back the correct way.
For the tapered look I just eye ball it, and depending on the angle I want I take off about 1-2" inches at the base.
The hardest part for me is to get all the angles on the cakes right so I have to keep checking the other cakes to make sure I don't take off too much and then it throws everything off.
I also use a big long bread knife, and a gentle sawing motion. The knife will do all the work you won't have to apply that much pressure.
I wish I could help more but I just wing it most of the time and it's really hard to explain how I do things when I don't even know myself..lol

P.s. I hope I spelled angles right?

Thanks! Yep you spelled it correctly.

cakemommytx, my inspiration cake is YOUR blue/yellow/green cake!! That is truly the most awesome cake EVER!

Thanks for the tips.

That's awesome, I'm very flattered
Let me know if you need help with anything else.

Here's a web link with a how to

hope it helps.

http://www.wickedgoodies.net/2012/07/how-to-taper-cake-tiers/