I got 3 inches!

So baking was a success yesterday. Each tier has been filled, tightly wrapped in saran wrap and foil, and placed lovingly in the freezer. In Rose’s book, she notes that cold ingredients and old baking powder cause compact volume. Even though my baking powder isn’t old, I opened a new can. I thought my ingredients were at room temperature, but just to be safe, I was extra cautious yesterday. And it seems to have worked out!

I forgot to take pics pre-freezer. I ended up redoing the bottom tier, so I have a 14″ filled but uniced cake up for grabs taking up room.

You’d think I’d be sick of eating cake by now. I just had a piece of scraps with some of the rum syrup and vanilla buttercream – DE licious.

Lesson #1: Must-have tools
Magi-Cake Strips - Soak them in water and wrap them around the pan for even baking – works wonders for large layers!!
Cake Release – this wonderful combination of oils comes in a squeeze bottle, requires no refrigeration, and you don’t need to butter, flour, and parchment over and over. Just pour a little in the pan and brush all around. A great timesaver!
Large waxed cake boards – use these to invert and transfer each layer. I also cut them up for the base of each tier instead of buying special-sized ones.
Extra stand mixing bowl – the largest KitchenAid can only mix batter up to a 14″ tier. I sped up the process with two bowls, and divided out all the dry ingredients. It went a lot faster and I didn’t have to pull out the same ingredients multiple times.
Extra set of pans – these I didn’t have. It took me an extra half hour to do each layer (2 layers per tier) because I had to wait for the cake to cool enough to take out of the pan, then rewash.

 Lesson #2: Level your oven racks
After the first couple of layers, I noticed that there was a slight dip on the front left corner of each one. My husband used his trusty leveler and leveled the oven, then checked the racks. It worked MUCH better afterwards.

 Lesson #3: Make a LOT of buttercream and have TONS of ingredients
If you’re using buttercream and are not experienced with making large cakes, make 3 or 4 times the amount that you think you need. You may need to use extra buttercream to achieve the proper tier height, and leave room for mistakes (see last post)! The buttercream can be frozen for months, so you don’t waste anything.

Also have on hand tons of: sugar, confectioner’s sugar, shortening, butter, eggs. Let’s just say I went through 7 1/2 dozen eggs like it was nothing.