I'm going to show you step by step how to assemble a tier cake by layering cake
and fillings, creating a support structure, stacking
cakes on top of each other, and adding final touches.
Start by layering your cakes. I like to start with my top tiers so that they
have time to set before stacking them. You'll need a cake board the same size
as each cake so this six inch cake is sitting on a six
inch cake board. Use a dollop of buttercream to attach
your first layer of cake to the cake board
and then alternate cake and filling. Make sure the layers are level by trimming
the tops with a serrated knife before you assemble the cake.
It's really important that the sides of the cake are straight so that it's not
leaning over to one side so as you place each cake layer down
onto the cake, spin it around on your turntable to
check it from different sides to make sure it's sitting directly on
the cake layer beneath it. I like to press down on my cake after
adding each layer to push out any filling that would otherwise ooze out
later under the weight of the frosting. After
assembling the cake I chill it in the fridge for an hour or in the freezer for
half an hour while i assemble the next cake. You can
build the bottom tier straight onto the board you're going to use to display the
cake, which should be at least 4 inches bigger
than the bottom cake. This one is 8 inches bigger - it's a 12
inch board with an 8 inch cake. You'll need a thicker cake board for
this than for the cakes above it because those don't need to support any
weight so they're just thin cardboard rounds with
greaseproof lining. This large cake board is a cake drum
and it's thicker and stronger so it will be able to hold the heavy cake on top of
it. Again, as you're assembling this cake
make sure the cake layers are level and sitting straight on top of each other.
I'm using my Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe for this and my 4 Minute
Buttercream and the recipe and tutorial links for
both are in the video description and in the top of the screen.
Chill this cake while you frost your other cake (or cakes, depending on how
many tiers you're going to do). I attach the little cake board onto a
bigger one with a roll of masking tape so that I can easily peel it off later.
Frost your cake with a crumb coat, which is a very thin layer of frosting
to trap in any crumbs that come off the cake
so that they don't get into the final coat of frosting. It's easiest to frost a
cold cake because it's firmer and less crumbly
than when it's at room temperature. Also, by chilling the cake before
frosting it the filling will set and hold the layers in place so that nothing
moves around while you're trying to frost it.
The crumb coat doesn't need to be perfect but aim for straight sides and a
level top of the cake. Cover the rest of your cakes with crumb
coats and then final coats of frosting, getting the sides as straight as you can
and using an offset spatula or frosting smoother to get nice sharp edges at the
top of the cake. I have a very detailed tutorial on how
to get smooth frosting and I've put the link in the top of the screen and in the
video description. You can add decorations to your cake at
this point or after assembling them and I'll show you both options later in
this video. To stack a tier cake you need a support
structure to hold the weight of each cake
and you can do this with straws or with dowels made with wood or plastic.
Push your first support into the bottom tier of the cake,
pushing it all the way down until you hit the board at the bottom.
Pinch it where it meets the top of the cake and pull it back out
and then cut it where you pinched it so that it's exactly the same height as
the frosted cake. Then line the rest of your supports up against the first one
and cut them so that they're all the same size or you can mark the point with
a pen and then cut them. I like to use boba straws because
they're thicker and wider than normal straws so they're very strong but
they're also very easy to cut with scissors.
Take a cake board the same size as the next cake and line it up in the middle
of the bottom cake and trace around it with a knife to
leave a circle drawn in the frosting on the top of your biggest cake.
Push your first support back into the hole you made earlier and then push the
rest into the cake. I use a support in the middle of a
cake for 10 inch cakes or bigger and sometimes for 8 inch cakes as well
but it's not really necessary for smaller cakes.
Then you need four more supports placed around the cake in a square formation,
keeping them two inches apart from each other and at least an inch within the
circle you drew onto the cake. When you push the supports into the cake,
push them in just a little bit and then lean down to look at them from
the side to make sure they're standing up straight,
not leaning to one side, so that they're as supportive as possible.
Remember to push them all the way down until they hit the cake board and if
your cake is level on the top and you cut
all of the supports the same height, they'll all go in right up to the top of
the frosting on the cake but they won't stick up over it. If
you're enjoying this tutorial please click the thumbs up button
and subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week! When
you're ready to stack your cake, take your next cake out of the fridge
and slide your offset spatula around underneath the cake
to loosen it from the larger cake board you've frosted it on.
Angle your spatula to lift the cake and pull off the roll of masking tape from
underneath, if you used one. You can pick it up like
this because the frosting has been chilled and set so it's firm.
Spread some fresh buttercream in the middle of the cake to make it sticky.
Then lower the top cake onto the bottom cake and line it up in the middle of the
cake so it's centered. Repeat for another tier
if you like, tracing around a cake board the same
size as the cake or you can use whatever sized pan you baked the cake in.
Then push in a support to measure the height of the cake and then use that one
to cut equal sized supports. This is a six inch cake and it will have
a four inch cake on top so I'm just using four supports with no
central support because the next cake is so small.
Lift the small cake off its board using your offset spatula to slice under
the frosting between the two cake boards to separate the cake on its little cake
board from the bigger cake board. Spread some
fresh buttercream on the top of the cake below
and then place the top cake on it. Don't worry about any messy seams or little
gaps between the tiers yet - we're about to tidy those up. Put some
buttercream in a piping bag with a round tip
or just a hole cut in the end of the piping bag for the buttercream to come
out of. You'll need a frosting smoother for this.
Any material as long as it has a straight edge.
Pipe buttercream all around the bottom of one of the cakes,
resting the bag down so that it's touching the cake below to completely
cover up the join between the two tiers. Then use your frosting smoother to
scrape around the cake, resting it down so that you're going all the way down to
the bottom and scraping a few times to smooth the frosting,
taking off all of the excess that's sticking out from the sides of the cake
but you'll be pushing the buttercream into the gaps in between the tiers to
fill them in so that the bottom of the cake is neat and smooth.
I'll show you some variations of this in a moment. Tidying up the join between the
tiers will give you a perfect blank canvas and when you've finished just
choose the prettiest side to be the front of your cake
and start decorating! I have hundreds of cake decorating tutorials to choose from
on my online cake school (and the link for that is in the top of
the screen and in the video description) and also on my YouTube channel so
subscribe to that for a new cake decorating tutorial every week!
If you use colours in your final coat of frosting, not just white,
you can tidy up the joins between the tiers in the same way.
Put the supports into your bottom cake, which you can do before
or after chilling the cake to set the frosting. What's essential is that the
top tier has been properly chilled so that you
can separate the frosting from the board you decorated the cake on
and then lift up the cake and lower it onto the cake below it
and, if necessary, move it around to sit where you want it to.
When everything's in place, pipe frosting around the join of the cakes.
You can do this even for patterned or decorated cakes like this striped
buttercream cake. For the top tier, the frosting at the
bottom of the cake happens to be white so I'm piping on white buttercream and
smoothing that to cover the gap between the top and bottom tier.
If the bottom had been one of the green watercolour stripes I would have saved
some of those colours of buttercream to do the touch-ups,
piping or spreading them around the join of the cakes and then scraping around
with a frosting smoother in the same way. I like to add decorations after stacking
my tier cakes so that I can see how everything lines
up and how the sizing looks in reality before scaling my decorations. That also
gives me the chance to decide which is the prettiest side
so that can be the front and then I choose the placement of my decorations.
For textured frosting or other decorations on the cake
you might choose to assemble the cake first and then add the decorations
so that it's easier to lower the top tiers onto the cake without damaging the
frosting or decorations. But if you want to decorate and then
stack the cake, maybe because you want to transport the tiers separately
and then assemble them at the location and then decorate them, a cake lifter is
really helpful. After you put the supports into the
bottom cake and spread on some fresh buttercream to make it sticky,
slide the cake lifter underneath the top cake so that you can lift it
and then lower it onto the bottom cake without holding onto the sides of the
cake. You can push it off the cake lifter using
an offset spatula or if the frosting has set you can use
your hands. I like to chill the cake first
so that the texture or decorations have set so that after lowering the cake down
onto the bottom tier, you can adjust it like this without
damaging the frosting. To cover the join at the bottom of the cake I'm piping
another ruffle around it. It doesn't have to be smooth frosting
that fills in any gaps around the cake board.
For this ombre cake I'm going to use another type of piping to cover the join
of the two tiers. I show how to achieve this pretty ombre
frosting in my free online course on 10 Frosting Techniques and to take the
course just go to www.britishgirlbakes.com or click the link in the video
description. After stacking the cakes I'm using
leftover orange buttercream (the same colour I used to frost the top
of the bottom tier and the bottom of the top tier) and this
piping bag is fitted with a small round tip,
a Wilton #8. I'm piping a beaded border by squeezing out little
blobs of buttercream all the way around the cake
and after covering up the seam I'll choose my favourite side for the front
and then cover that with decorations. These are fondant and since the frosting
has set, it's not sticky anymore so I'm brushing the backs of the fondant
decorations with a tiny bit of water to make them sticky
and then attaching them to the cake. Finally, one more piping technique to
cover the join of the tiers and for this cake I'm using an open star
tip, a 4B by Wilton for wavy piping. I cover all
sorts of piping in my online course on 10 Cake Decorating Techniques and you
can find out more about that course on my online cake school as well.
Thanks for watching! Remember to subscribe to my channel for a new cake
decorating tutorial every week!