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How to Make a Tiered Cake PART 1
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Sep 6, 2024
Making a tiered cake doesn't have to be intimidating! In this tutorial I'll show you how, sharing tips and tricks so that you can assemble, frost, and stack a two or three tier cake confidently! This tutorial will be continued in Part 2 next Tuesday - subscribe to my channel so you don't miss it! *Start your FREE 7 day trial on my cake school https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/p/all-you-can-cake/ *LEARN The Basics of Cake and The Basics of Buttercream in my most popular online courses! https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/ *My 4 Minute Buttercream recipe https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/recipes/buttercream-frosting/ *My Small Chocolate Cake recipe https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/small-chocolate-cake-recipe/ *WATCH my Facelift Frosting tutorial https://youtu.be/AXEkaledyJU *WATCH my tutorial on 15 Frosting Mistakes You're Making and How to Fix Them https://youtu.be/-d3eVn2d7D4
View Video Transcript
0:00
Stacking a cake can be nerve-wracking, but with the tips and tricks in this tutorial
0:04
you'll be able to assemble, frost and stack a two- or three-tier cake confidently
0:13
The first step is, of course, to bake your cakes. I'm using my perfect chocolate cake batter
0:19
and the recipe on British Girlbakes.com has a table with the ingredients for different sizes
0:23
from 6-inch to 10-inch, and two different heights, standard and tall. Leave your cakes in the pans for 10 minutes to cool slightly
0:32
and then turn them out onto wire racks and leave them to cool completely
0:36
which takes about two hours. Then, after they cool, I really recommend chilling them
0:41
and you'll see why in a moment. I've wrapped these 8-inch cake layers in plastic wrap
0:45
and put them in the freezer for just 30 minutes or an hour in the fridge. This is a cake drum and it's a thick cake board
0:52
that can support the weight of a tier cake. Starting with my 8-inch layers, I'm assembling the bottom-tenth layers
0:57
I'm assembling the bottom tier of the cake first. Spread a dot of buttercream onto the middle of the
1:02
cake drum and then push the first layer of cake down onto it. The dot of buttercream will act like
1:08
glue to stop the cake from sliding around as you frost and decorate it. Spread or pipe you're filling
1:14
onto the first layer and you'll notice that these layers are very firm because they're cold
1:19
which means you can lift them and move them around without them cracking or crumbling and it makes
1:24
frusting them much quicker and easier and neater. As you place each cake layer on the cake
1:29
take your time to line it up above the layer beneath it, so that the sides of the cake are
1:33
straight and it's not leaning. Cover the whole cake in a thin layer of frosting, called a crumb coat
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because it's meant to catch any crumbs that come off the cake. I like to start with the top
1:44
spooning on a generous amount of buttercream and then spreading it all over the top of the
1:48
cake, pushing it out beyond the edges of the cake to prevent a domed top later. Hold your off
1:54
spatchel at a 45 degree angle and spin the cake to smooth and level the frosting and the excess
1:59
frosting will build up on your offset spatula until you swipe it off and then scrape that frosting into a bowl
2:05
use a new bowl so that you not putting this frosting into your main bowl of frosting since this frosting might have crumbs of cake in it and you don want to get those into the rest of your frosting that you then going to use for the final layer of frosting later
2:19
Move down to the sides of the cake and make sure that the frosting sticks up above the top edge of the cake
2:25
which is going to prevent a domed top and also give you nice sharp angles from the sides of the cake up onto the top of the cake
2:33
Frosting a cake is definitely easier to do when your cake layers are cold compared to room temperature cake layers because cold cake layers are firm so the cake
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won't wobble when you apply pressure to it while you're spreading on the frosting and also
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cold layers are much less crumbly so you won't pull off any pieces of cake as you spread on your
2:50
sticky frosting this is my four-minute buttercream and the recipe is on british girlbakes.com
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and linked in the video description scrape around the cake a few times with a straight-edged cake comb
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or frosting smoother the crumb coat doesn't have to be perfectly smooth but
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make sure it gives the cake a neat outline, with straight sides and a level top
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and also, very important, make sure there's no exposed cake, because you need this layer of frosting to cover the whole cake so that it traps every crumb that might come off the cake
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Use your Offset's Bachelor to scrape the build-up of frosting from your cake comb
3:23
and use it to fill in any indents in the frosted cake, where the frosting isn't as thick as on the rest of the cake
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Scrape around the cake again, and for the top edge, push sideways with your Offset's Bachelor
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to take off the excess frosting that's sticking up around the top edge, leaving a neat sharp angle behind
3:41
Put this cake on its cake drum in the fridge while you assemble the other tiers
3:46
I share a new cake decorating tutorial every week, so if you're enjoying this one and you want to see more
3:51
make sure you click that subscribe button. For the next tier of this cake, choose a cake board that's the same size as the cake
3:58
or as close to that size as possible. This is a six-inch cake on a six-inch board
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the first layer with a dot of buttercream, add your filling, and then place the next cake layer
4:10
directly on top. This is a short six-inch cake made with my small batch chocolate cake recipe
4:16
which is on British Girlbakes and linked in the video description You can see that my cake layers aren perfectly flat Instead of leveling them which would take away from the height of the cake I using my filling to create a level top before adding the next cake and filling in any gaps with
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more buttercream. This is perfectly fine if you're going to chill your cake until a few hours
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before serving it, because when this buttercream gets cold, it firms up, and will hold everything
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in place so you don't have to worry about drooping or bulging or leaning. If you want
4:46
to level your cake layers, use a serrated knife like a bread knife to trim off any domes
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so that the top of each cake layer is flat. Cover this cake in a crumb coat as well, put this
4:56
cake in the fridge to chill and repeat the process with the rest of your cakes. This little
5:00
4 inch cake will be the top tier of my three-tier cake, and I've assembled it on a cardboard
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cakeboard which I've trimmed to be the same size as the cake, because I didn't have a
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cake board as small as this cake. The board needs to be the same size as the cake, so that it's invisible
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by the time you've frosted and stacked the cake. To frost the cake, it's easiest to use a larger cakeboard as well
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with a non-slip mat, and then place the cake on its little cakeboard on top
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and then frost the cake. This way, the frosting won't get all over your turntable
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because the large cakeboard at the bottom will catch it all. It's also easier to move the cake around when it's on a bigger board
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so that you have something to hold onto when you pick it up and put it into the fridge
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Okay, once the crumb coat has set, which takes about 30 minutes in the fridge, you can spread on the final layer of frosting or pipe it on
5:51
Chilling the crumb coat makes it firm instead of sticky, so none of the crumb coat frosting will mix with this final layer of frosting
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meaning that the colours will stay separate instead of blending, and also that any crumbs within the crumb coat frosting won't get into this final layer of frosting
6:07
so no crumbs will be visible on the final decorated cake. I'm using my facelift frosting technique on this cake and the other two as well
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and I have a separate tutorial on that technique, and the link is in the video description
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When you finish each cake, put it back into the fridge to chill and set the frosting
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I don't recommend adding any decorations yet, like piped borders or texture or wafer paper or anything that might get damaged when you stack the cakes later It best to add those details right at the end when the cake is already tiered
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Note that your cakes don't all have to be the same height. The previous cake, the pink one
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was about five inches tall, but this one is only about three inches tall
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Sometimes it's nice to vary the heights of each cake, and you'll see at the end that this
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design is so dramatic and colourful that the different heights really add to the effect
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but for a more traditional design, you might choose to use the same height for each cake
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The conversion table for my perfect chocolate cake recipe, which is on Britishgirlbakes.com
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has measurements for both standard and tall cakes. So whatever width your cakes are, 6 inch, 8 inch, 10 inch, the heights will all be the same
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either standard or tall. It's fine if you can see the cakeboard at the bottom of the cake
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I'll show you how to cover that up during the stacking process. I'm using lots of colours of buttercream for my cake, but you might be using just one
7:27
However many colours you're using, it's important to save any leftovers for the stacking process
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Cover any bowls of buttercream with plastic wrap, or if you're using piping bags, you can leave the leftovers in those
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putting the whole bag into aномware to prevent the buttercream from drying out
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Or twist the end of the bag to keep it tight and wrap the piping tip with plastic wrap
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and that will prevent the exposed buttercream from drying out and crusting
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Take your time to make the top edge of each cake neat because the edges are going to be very noticeable when the cake is stacked
7:57
and having a sharp angle from the size onto the top of each cake
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makes the cake look much neater and prettier than having a rounded top edge
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I have a tutorial on 15 frosting mistakes you're making and how to fix them that can help with your frosting technique
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Put all of your cakes in the fridge for at least two hours before stacking them
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At this point you should have the bottom tier on a cake drum at least four inches wider than you
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the cake and the top tiers on cake boards the same size as those cakes. It's fine if the
8:26
boards are visible for now. In part two of this tutorial I'll show you how to stack these
8:31
cakes to make a three-tier cake so make sure you watch that video next
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