I have a question about cake boards. If I have a cake 6 inches round and buy a 6inch cake board the cake and cake board do not size up. the cake shrinks. how do people get their cake and cake board to be the exact same size? specially when stacking?

I'm guessing the frosting and fondant, if any. I'll be fi ding out when I make my cake for my class tomorrow.

If it's just a minor difference, the frosting/fondant & border usually cover it up. Sometimes when I have used the wrong sized cake board I just trim it with scissors and it's fine!

I usually just cut to size also.

the boards arent always exactly the right size either, they have some room for error. the ones ive done, the icing fills the gap - give you a good marker where to scrape ur bc to as well.
but sometimes i cut my own anyway!
xx

thank you! I usually trim it too. just wondering if i was doing something wrong. you trim with the cake on it? Have tried to trace the bottom of the pan im going to bake cake but cake shrinks.

since your cake shrinks, it sounds like your cake is being over cooked. If it's cooked to long it will pull away from the sides of the pan and shrink.

As long as the board isn't sticking out much more than the cake then i wouldn't worry about it. Once you put icing on it, and then maybe fondant it will be covered up. Also, if you're doing a board it will be covered up also, no worries.

The space on the cake board where there's no cake is where the icing goes. You hold your spatula or bench scraper vertical, using the edge of the cake board as a guide for smoothing. That way you know that you've put an evenly thick coating of icing on the cake.

All baked goods are going to shrink a bit. That's fine. As the batter bakes a small portion of the moisture in the batter evaporates. That's what it's supposed to do! And then the cake will be a bit smaller than the board. Unless it's excessive shrinkage, there's not a problem.

I questioned this when I first started to decorate cakes, but you want it to be a little bigger so that when you frost your cake you use the cake board as a guide for when you smooth your cake with a scraper and then you add your fondant