Hello my fellow cakers,

Could anyone please advise me on how to get neat cake slices. I was looking at Ron Ben Israel's cake slices and I really want to try and acheive that look when my cakes are cut.

Right now, my cakes look a little sloppy when cut. I'm thinking maybe the filling is not stiff enough. I also use jam to fill a lot of my cakes and they tend to look even messier.

Any advice please?

Oh, below are examples of the neat slices I'm referring to.

Second example

Third example

There will always be some degree of "mess" when cutting a cake. That slice look so perfect, that it makes me wonder if it weren't Photo Shopped in some way (referring to the first picture you posted). When I cut slices, there is always a little bit of icing or filling that drags into the cake layers below it, which is caused by the knife when the cake is sliced. To me that is unavoidable. My fillings are definitely on the stiffer side and even that happens. Now if those cakes were cut cold that could be a different story. The meringue buttercream is rock hard when it's cold so that may help it look cleaner. But obviously cakes shouldn't be served cold.

Now if you have filling smushing all over the place and big chunks of loose crumbs (or the cake isn't holding together) that is another thing altogether. That means you need to look for cake recipes with a tighter crumb or tweak your existing recipes so that the crumb is finer and holds together better.

ETA: Using a hot knife when slicing can also help keep the slices neater as well.

I agree with Annie that those slices have been cleaned up for photographing purposes.

In my experience, a long, SHARP, straight-edge knife yields the neatest looking slice. The knife blade must be wiped clean after each slice. Any crumbs or icing/filling left on the knife will assist in butchering the next slice.

Along with a clean, sharp, non-serrated knife for cutting, I'd also venture to guess that for those photos (probably done by a food stylist), the cake was either very cold, or frozen. I really doubt that on a room temp cake, you'd ever get that degree of crispness...........unless the cake were very, very dry..................

I'll say, too, that my fillings are certainly not that "firm", nor are they that thick. I use, and need, a dam to hold my mousse fillings and even my flavored buttercreams..........I also prefer more cake to filling ratio vs. filling to cake............

Rae