Tips for 3 Tiered Cake

Hello my blogging friends! The last fornight has been a whirlwind of travel, festivities and baking.  I was initially absent because I changed my blog URL which lost many of you in cyberspace!  Then, I left on my trip to Hong Kong which was then followed by celebrations for my Mother's 50th Birthday. I organized a surprise 50th party for her and had to cook many appetizers as well as this 3 tiered cake for her! Phew! I'm tired just thinking about it!

So, this post is just to say that I am definitely still here blogging and I'm sorry about my little pause. Please note that my URL is now http://www.dreamsofabaker.blogspot.com.  You may need to update your following situation for the new URL to register on your dashboards.  I look forward to hearing from you, and following your posts of course, as time goes on!

Now, I'd like to just share a few tips about icing and assembling a 3 tiered cake.  I used the following chocolate cake recipe which is enough batter for 2 cakes (click here); and the top layer of my cake was made out of this Donna Hay Vanilla Cake recipe (click here).

Ingredients
2 x chocolate cake
1 x vanilla cake
3 batches chocolate buttercream
1 x vanilla buttercream, dyed to your desired colour

Equipment1 metal spatula
1 bowl of very hot water
1 tea towel
1 large icing bag (dyed vanilla buttercream inside) fitted with wide star nozzle
+ flowers for decoration

General Method and Tips
Place largest chocolate cake on icing board.  Dip metal spatula into bowl of hot water, wipe off water on tea towel, and then scoop up some chocolate buttercream to ice chocolate cake.  Try to use more buttercream than you need and then smooth off the excess.  The heat from the hot water will help you to create a smooth appearance.  Ice all of the cakes separately before stacking them.  Using the piping bag, pipe star shape all around the edges of each layer.  This will cover up any slightly imperfections around the bases of the cakes.  Place flowers (from garden, or edible but don't use live flowers with lots of pollen) on each layer of cake for decoration.  Chill in fridge so buttercream sets, but bring to room temperature to serve.

Design Tips
Choose a simple piping design if you are not yet confident with intricate piping.  Not only with this save you time, but will ensure that your cake looks neater and elegant.  Simple can sometimes be key.