You’ve decided to make a cake project that has numerous levels, or tiers, but are unsure how to do it. Today’s post will cover just that! Cake gets heavy real fast - my most recent project as I write this post was well over 20lbs. So, when thinking about a multilevel cake, we need to make sure the cake doesn’t “crumble” under the pressure…..ha ha.
Let’s use my son’s 11th birthday cake as our example today. I’ll post the full project soon, but with this post we’ll tackle the stacking portion of the project. He requested a Red Velvet “Mountain Cake” for his birthday. Within the last year, we had moved to the mountains, and he had just finished a season on the ski team at the mountain.
Once I baked all my cake layers it was time to think about stacking them. I like thicker cake layers as opposed to thin. Some cake artists like to torte their cakes into many thin layers, but you’ll see thicker layers in my pictures. I do two layers per tier as a general rule, and my layers are about 1.5” or so thick, with frosting in between the two layers. On a side note....don't throw away the extra cake resulting from leveling, make it into cake pops!
The base that the cake will go on is the first important decision you need to make. Depending on the theme of the cake I’m making, I’ll choose a base with either a little extra room or a lot of extra room around the bottom of the cake to add wording or additional decorations. Next, I decide how I’m going to center my cakes on the cake base. Will it be perfectly centered, or off-centered by a bit in a certain direction? Most cake bases are circular, but they also come in a rectangular shape as well. This is very thick cardboard (approx ⅝”) to support the weight of your cake.
I next figure out just how tall my cake is going to be and place a dowel rod in the cake base at the center of where the cake will sit. Before putting the dowel rod in place, I put a little frosting in the hole to help hold the dowel rod. 
If your cake base will be covered with fondant, as mine usually are (except in this project), I smooth my fondant down prior to putting the dowel rod in place. Next, I put a ring of frosting dollops under where I know the first cake round will sit. This will help secure the cake in place.
After leveling my cake layers, and prior to placing them on the cardboard cake circles, I pop out the circular hole at the center of the cake circle. Removing this piece will help me lower the cake onto the dowel rod. If adding simple syrup to your cake layers, this is the time to brush it on. 
I then pipe my frosting on the lower of the two layers, and then place my upper layer on the frosted lower layer. I like a thick layer of frosting between my two cake layers, so I’ll use a tip like a 1A or 2A that will pipe a thick ring in concentric circles from outer to inner. If your cake will be covered in fondant, this is the time to cover and smooth the first level. Next, it's time to carefully lower the first level over the dowel rod and onto the cake board.
Then lift slightly, keeping an eye on where the top of the straw should end and make a mark with a pen. I cut just below this mark, and gently push the straw back into the cake. Repeat for all of the straws needed on that level.
Your next two layered cake level should be prepared the same way as the first (level, syrup, frost, remove center circle in cake circle, fondant if necessary). Place frosting dollops on the first level where the second level will sit, and gently lower the second level over the dowel rod and place it on the first level. If adding a third level to the cake as I did, measure and place Boba Straws in this level to support the 3rd level of the cake.
Prepare your final level of the cake. For this cake, my third level had three layers. I needed to make levels smaller and smaller as I went up the cake, and it ended up being an odd number of layers rather than even. I leveled, syruped, frosted, and stacked my final level and gently lowered it onto the two levels below it, after adding my frosting dollops to secure it in place.
The next and final step was to do a little carving. Again, this was going to turn into a mountain cake, so I needed to create more of a gentle sloping appearance to the cake. This also will remove some of the drier edges of the cake if needed.
And, there it was! It was a huge and VERY HEAVY cake! Next came the pounds of frosting needed for shaping prior to decorating. Here’s the finished product, but if you’d like to read more about the whole process, here is my post on the cake, and here is a tutorial on creating fondant trees. I was really happy with how the cake turned out......tasty and beautiful!
Let’s use my son’s 11th birthday cake as our example today. I’ll post the full project soon, but with this post we’ll tackle the stacking portion of the project. He requested a Red Velvet “Mountain Cake” for his birthday. Within the last year, we had moved to the mountains, and he had just finished a season on the ski team at the mountain.
Once I baked all my cake layers it was time to think about stacking them. I like thicker cake layers as opposed to thin. Some cake artists like to torte their cakes into many thin layers, but you’ll see thicker layers in my pictures. I do two layers per tier as a general rule, and my layers are about 1.5” or so thick, with frosting in between the two layers. On a side note....don't throw away the extra cake resulting from leveling, make it into cake pops!
The base that the cake will go on is the first important decision you need to make. Depending on the theme of the cake I’m making, I’ll choose a base with either a little extra room or a lot of extra room around the bottom of the cake to add wording or additional decorations. Next, I decide how I’m going to center my cakes on the cake base. Will it be perfectly centered, or off-centered by a bit in a certain direction? Most cake bases are circular, but they also come in a rectangular shape as well. This is very thick cardboard (approx ⅝”) to support the weight of your cake.
If your cake base will be covered with fondant, as mine usually are (except in this project), I smooth my fondant down prior to putting the dowel rod in place. Next, I put a ring of frosting dollops under where I know the first cake round will sit. This will help secure the cake in place.
After leveling my cake layers, and prior to placing them on the cardboard cake circles, I pop out the circular hole at the center of the cake circle. Removing this piece will help me lower the cake onto the dowel rod. If adding simple syrup to your cake layers, this is the time to brush it on.
I then pipe my frosting on the lower of the two layers, and then place my upper layer on the frosted lower layer. I like a thick layer of frosting between my two cake layers, so I’ll use a tip like a 1A or 2A that will pipe a thick ring in concentric circles from outer to inner. If your cake will be covered in fondant, this is the time to cover and smooth the first level. Next, it's time to carefully lower the first level over the dowel rod and onto the cake board.
Okay, the first level of cake is on the cake board! How do you now stabilize the cake to add the next level? The answer - Boba Straws. These little gems are AMAZING! The clear, wide straws are very strong and can be cut to any desired height. Depending on the size of the cake level, I’ll use 4 to 6 of these per level. Lower the Boba Straw straight down into the cake level until you hit the cake circle at the bottom of the level.
Then lift slightly, keeping an eye on where the top of the straw should end and make a mark with a pen. I cut just below this mark, and gently push the straw back into the cake. Repeat for all of the straws needed on that level.
Your next two layered cake level should be prepared the same way as the first (level, syrup, frost, remove center circle in cake circle, fondant if necessary). Place frosting dollops on the first level where the second level will sit, and gently lower the second level over the dowel rod and place it on the first level. If adding a third level to the cake as I did, measure and place Boba Straws in this level to support the 3rd level of the cake.
Prepare your final level of the cake. For this cake, my third level had three layers. I needed to make levels smaller and smaller as I went up the cake, and it ended up being an odd number of layers rather than even. I leveled, syruped, frosted, and stacked my final level and gently lowered it onto the two levels below it, after adding my frosting dollops to secure it in place.
The next and final step was to do a little carving. Again, this was going to turn into a mountain cake, so I needed to create more of a gentle sloping appearance to the cake. This also will remove some of the drier edges of the cake if needed.
And, there it was! It was a huge and VERY HEAVY cake! Next came the pounds of frosting needed for shaping prior to decorating. Here’s the finished product, but if you’d like to read more about the whole process, here is my post on the cake, and here is a tutorial on creating fondant trees. I was really happy with how the cake turned out......tasty and beautiful!
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