do you guys fill your cakes before carving? or do you stack them, carve, damn and fill the cakes? I've done it both ways but on pretty simple (and not tall) cakes. but have a pretty big cake to do (two big bongo drums) and I'm wondering which way would be best. I dont want my fillings to ooze, so it seems as though it would make sense to carve the shape then fill which would allow for a damn? cakes are 9" and 8" rounds. i'm torn.

I usually fill layers with a stiffer bc than usually and then carve. Can't really do a dam before carving as you lost it when you carve. Found that out the hard way! I've never tried carving and then filling.

i've done a few carved cakes, i've always frozen my cakes, torted then stacked. then while the cakes are still pretty cold, i carve. but i usually use choc ganache to torte with so it's usually not a problem with oozing. if there is, you just wipe it away with your knife. i usually let the stacked, filled and carved cake settle before dirty icing. HTH