So you want to decorate a cake and you’re wondering where to start? Well the first thing you need is a level cake!

You’ve baked your cakes and they just came out of the oven. You think to yourself…”Wow, they really puffed up in the middle!” Here’s where you’re going to need to level your cake. This just means that you trim the tops off of your cakes so they are nice and flat. There are a few different ways you can do this.

First, if the dome isn’t very high, you can simply place a clean kitchen towel over the cake and gently press down. You need to do this just after you take your pans out of the oven, while they’re nice and hot. If you’re afraid of pressing down unevenly you can use a cutting board over your towel instead of your hands.

Another way to level your cake is to use a long serrated knife. Stay with me here…don’t get nervous about cutting your cake freehand! The trick is to your cut your cake while it is still in the pan. (POOF! Mind blown.) You simply run the knife parallel to your cake pan along the top edge, using a sawing type of motion. The important thing is to make sure the blade of your knife goes all the way across the pan. This will ensure your knife stays level.

Of course there’s always a cake leveler you can use too. They either have a thin blade or a thin wire pulled tight at the ends. They are adjustable, so you can trim at any height you need. You can even use the cake leveler to torte (fancy word for cutting them in half horizontally) your cakes. This is how I prefer to level my cakes and I just love mine! It doesn’t take up much space and it’s so easy to use.

Now you have the perfect foundation to begin assembling your cake.