Hello All! I'm making a three tier cake next week 14, 12 and 8 inches. Do I absolutely need to use a heating core for the 14 and 12 inch cakes? I've heard of using the flower nail instead, but would that work for the 14 inch? Would it actually distribute the heat enough to make it worth it? Can I just lower my temperature and use the convection on my oven instead?

Thanks!
Christina

I have not done a 14" yet, but for the 12" I don't use a core, and mine turn out great.

I use one or more flower nails for anything 10 inches or bigger.

Excuse the newbie...but when you say flower nail...how do you use it in the cake when it bakes?? Just stick it in the batter in the pan?? Won't it fall over? (I use the wasc recipe)

I would use the flower nail technique for sure in the 14, and probably in the 12.

I'm curious about your sizes though. with 8, 12, and 14 your tiers aren't goign to be proportionally larger. I would think using a 10 top, or a 16 bottom, would look more "normal."

Excuse the newbie...but when you say flower nail...how do you use it in the cake when it bakes?? Just stick it in the batter in the pan?? Won't it fall over? (I use the wasc recipe)

Just as dchockeyguy said, just place it upside down in the center of the pan and pour the batter in. Make sure you grease and flour the nail before you put it in the pan. Then you can remove the nail once the cake is done and cooled off.

If you forget to put the nail in before pouring in the batter, it's ok. Just stick the greased/floured nail in upside down and make sure it sits at the bottom of the pan. It won't tip over. I've used it in the wasc recipe several times and it worked fine.

Just a quick tip that I have learned with the flower nail...I stick my through my parchment paper that is in my pans before I pour the cake batter...that way the nail part is exposed to heat the cake through but it is easy to remove when the cake is done because it is on the parchment paper.

wow I like the nails to stick out of the parchment paper a lot

I don't use a heating core or a flower nail in any size cake. Just turn your oven temp down and you'll be fine. I tried the flower nail once because so many CCers talk about it and I thought it was just silly.

I use flower nails in nearly all of my cakes.

I find that with the nails, there is little to no hump, and in my life, they're easier to deal with than cake strips.

I put several nails in cakes over 10" round (only 1 in an 8" or 10"). In a 12", probably 3 nails. In a 14", 5 nails. In rectangular or square cakes, I line them up down the center of the cake (in a 12x18, I use 4-5 nails). I like not having to cut away any cake.

Rae

I just made a 16", 14" and 10" cake for my daughters wedding. I used flower nails in all 3 of these sizes. It is so much easier to do and it doesn't create the dome on the cake. I don't know if you need more than 1 flower nail in each cake though. I used one each and they turned out great. Fiddling with the oven temp, doesn't always work. I tried that too, and the flower nail is just so darn simple. Do a search on flower nail method in the forum if you are still wondering how to do it. Good luck

I'll give it a try! Thanks! I've got a nail but don't have enough strips!