Frosting A Layer Cake

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Bake a two or three-layer cake and allow to cool completely.
  2. Prepare frosting of your choice.
  3. Get out a 10 to 11-inch cake plate.
  4. Center the first layer of the cake on the cake plate.
  5. NOTE: Cake layers are usually placed top side up. However, butter cakes will often have a pronounced dome. There a two ways to deal with domed cakes:
  6. Method #1 for dealing with pronounced domes: Place the first layer of the cake dome side down on the cake plate.
  7. Method #2 for dealing with pronounced domes: Trim dome so that the top of the cake is level.
  8. Frosting the layers:
  9. If you are making a 2-layer cake, spoon about ⅓ of the frosting on top of the first layer.
  10. If you are making a 3-layer cake, spoon about ¼ of the frosting on top of the first layer.
  11. With a knife or a flexible spatula, distribute the frosting over the top of the cake so that it is about ¼-inch thick.
  12. Any excess frosting can be spread around the side of the cake.
  13. When spreading frosting around the side of the cake, position your knife vertically with the knife as flat as possible against the side of the cake. Spread the frosting from the top down to the bottom of the cake. NOTE: If you have an offset flexible spatula please use it! It will make the spreading of the frosting much easier.
  14. Place the second cake layer on top of the first layer. If there is a pronounced dome place layer dome side down or trim off the dome to even out the layer.
  15. Repeat the above process for spreading the frosting onto the second layer.
  16. If you are making a 3-layer cake, add the last cake layer and repeat the frosting process.
  17. At this point you should have about ¼ of the frosting left in your work bowl.
  18. With the knife or spatula flat against the side of the cake work the remaining frosting around the cake until the frosting is smooth and the space where the layers meet can no longer be distinguished.
  19. Don't worry if your cake doesn't look as perfect as the ones you see in bakery cases. Your homemade cake will be appreciated by all who see and taste it!
  20. Cakes featured in this slide show are Mocha Cake frosted with Mocha Frosting and White Layer Cake frosted with French Silk Frosting.
  21. Click here for frosting recipes.
  22. Click here for cake and cupcake recipes.

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