A Baking Question

My mom was a professional cake baker and decorator when I was a child, (imagine the amount of dishes I had to do!). Anyway, I used to sit in the kitchen and watch everything she did. From time to time she would have a cake that came out close to perfect, but never all the way perfect. She would cool the cake and then flip it upside down using the bottom of her cake as her pallett to decorate. If she felt the dome was too high on the top of the cake she would trim it before she would flip it, otherwise you risk the cake cracking. Also, she would sometimes freeze the cake before trimming because it helps keeps the crumbs to a minimum.
I know techinques and styles have changed in the past 20 years so others may have better techniques to offer but from my experience this way works pretty good as well.

A couple of tricks that I have come across are these:

Depending on the size of your cake, get a couple of metal flower nails (decorating tool) and invert them in the center of your cake pan, spaced out according to the size of the cake. The metal heats while in the oven, and helps the cake to bake more evenly in the center, preventing the huge dome from forming.

Cake baking strips are available, but they cost upwards of $20. You can also take an old, clean dish towel and tear it into strips, soak with water, and then fasten them around your cake pan with safety pins or other oven proof fastener.

It also helps to bake the cake at a temp about 25 degrees lower than called for, so you can bake it longer without the edges drying out.

When the cake is done, cool it in the pan for 10-15 minutes and then invert it onto a cake board to finish cooling. If there is a small dome, it will likely flatten out during the cooling process. Always use the flat bottom of the cake for decorating, it's a sturdier canvas with less crumbs.

Good luck with the cake!

I like the puffy dome on top of the cake. I slice it off with a bread knife and eat it.

You always turn the cake over so the hump is on the bottom.

I do cake decorating. Torting the cake is what most people do (cutting it off). There are a few tricks to this. When I first started the easiest way for me was to take the cake out of the pan. Put two or three sheets of cardboard in the pan. I cut these myself or used cake rounds. You put the cake back in the pan on top of the cardboard (the cardboard it to raise the cake edges to the top of the pan, so if it isn't raised enough add more). Now using a bread knife you can use the top of the pan to cut straight and you'll have a pretty evenly cut cake.

You can also invest in baking strips, they wrap around the cake and help evenly distribute the heat in the pan so the cake doesn't puff. Unless you plan on lots of baking it's not worth the money investment. And I have heard of people making their own with wet newspaper, but I have never tried it.

I bake my cakes at 325 for a longer period of time, usually 40 or 45 minutes. I do use Wilton cake pans. Make sure you grease and flower the pan well. Let it set about 10 minutes then run a butter knife around the pan before flipping the cake out of the pan. Let the cake cool completely before frosting. I usually frost the bottom of the cake. You will need to put a large glob of frosting on it so that the crumbs don't get into the frosting. Good luck!

I watch * a lot * of cake decorating shows and I've never seen them decorate a cake that hasn't had the top "trimmed." You can buy a specialty tool that will evenly trim the top. (Looks like a giant cheese slicer, really.)

After you decorating all buttercream or are you using fondant? Don't forget the crumb coat.

I'm pretty sure all bakers just trim the top part off to make it even, or if it's not too puffed up just flip it upside down and use the flat bottom as the top to decorate. I've always just used a large serrated bread knife to saw the uneven parts off.

Someone mentioned the baking strips. I don't remember them being that much of an investment I got mine at Michaels, so I'm sure you can finda 40% off coupon. They also make a gadget that slices the cake off evenly so you are not trying to flatten it with a knife. My mom who had a side business with cakes would just flip it over and fill in the gaps with icing, unless it was a really big bump, then she would cut it.

I have been baking/decorating cakes since 2000 and there is nothing wrong with needing to trim off the cake top. And there is nothing wrong with using a box mix. Some of the best cake decorators in the country use box mixes for some of their recipes. They are dependable and you know what to expect every time. I use scratch recipes and box recipes all the time depending on what I'm making and the design.

Wilton makes a small tool to level cakes with that only cost a few bucks. You can only trim up to a 12 inch cake with it but it def works for that purpose. The larger leveler by wilton is garbage. Don't waste your $.

Wait until your cake is completely cool-over 2 hours at the very minimum then trim the top and flip the cake over so you have a smooth surface to ice.

When you put them in the pan to bake, put a little dent in the middle part (where they would rise or dome up).

I decorate cakes all the time... I just slice off the dome and then flip it so that the smooth part is on top.

Other tricks:

- Boxed cake mix : use corn oil (keeps it moister MUCH longer)
- Always frost TWICE if you're not using fondant. First layer gets you a smooth and crumb free working surface. Frost, set, frost. Decorate.
- Parchement paper is a gift from the gods. Use it. With abandon
- Everyone screws up. Always make extra rounds and just scrap off frosting that goes "whoops" and redo it.
- When doing a highly decorated cake plan 3 days to do it (wedding cake type = 5-6, bday type plan on 3). Day 1 is baking and any chocolate sculpting, Day 2 is decorating, Day 3 is decorating you couldn't force yourself to do for one more minute on day 2. Even for just SIMPLE decorated cakes... seriously... take 3 days to do it. That way you'll be done on day 2 and not be stressed out on the day of the party.
- Ziplock bags with their tips cut off for metal or plastic tips to be placed in are 1000x better than pastry bags. Because you have an unlimited supply for different colors and you don't have to wash them.
- Nothing tastes better than warm cake you've just sliced off (those domes).
- Gel food coloring and making your own icing saves $$$$ and is SUPER easy (just look for the recipe on the back of a powdered sugar box, or google royal icing or buttercream recipes). You'll never spend $4 a tub and skimp on frosting again.

Back when I baked a lot, my cake pans were not quite flat on the bottom.
When I put the batter in I could spin the pans so the batter would be a little more against the sides of the pans.
I also would flip the cake over so the flatter side was up before icing it.
Trimming off a portion to get a flat surface seems like a waste of cake to me.