Damming a cake!

1. Start by anchoring your cake to a cake drum with a smear of frosting.

2. Place cake "face down" onto drum. Pip a thick border of frosting around the edge of your cake. This is a dam and will keep you filling from oozing out the sides.

3. Fill space with a filling that is thick!

4. Place next layer "face down" atop the filling and smooth out the dam frosting.

It is important to let a cake settle after damming and before frosting.

I let my cakes sit loosly wrapped for 2 hours prior to frosting.

Happy caking,

Teresa

Baking it perfect!

One of the most frustrating things is baking a cake and then having it fall apart or stick to the pan when you flip it out. Ugh!

Here's my tried and true method and I wouldn't do it any other way.

1. Coat your pans generously with my Pan Coating

2. Fill pans 2/3 full with batter

3. Bake SLOWLY and don't open the over door unless you need to.

I bake mine at 325 degrees

To get a perfectly smooth top and a guaranteed 2 inches WITHOUT cutting the top do this:

4. Lay a towel atop the dome and GENTLY press down with a cookies sheet.

Hold for a good minute. This compressed the dome and makes the cake an even 2 inches. No guess work here!

5. Look! No dome!

Let cake cool until pan is still warm but "touchable"

6. Turn pan over onto a clean towel (absorbs moisture) and GENTLY lift it off.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I show you how to dam a cake.

Happy caking,

Teresa