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!
