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Media Platforms Pattern Squad

I don't have much of a sugariness tooth, just I loooove layer cakes. The ta-da! factor is so high, while the endeavor tin exist relatively low ... every bit long as you know what y'all're doing. For this yr'due south Expert Housekeeping Easter menu, I developed that three-layer dazzler to a higher place that is covered in billowy cream cheese frosting and filled with a sugariness-tart strawberry-rhubarb compote.

To help you achieve layer cake perfection, I tapped the food experts at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute for their top tips:

"Even if the recipe ingredients are not called for past weight, a scale is useful for making sure that your pans are all filled with the aforementioned corporeality of batter. That mode, the layers will all melt at the same charge per unit and be of equal thickness." — Catherine Lo, Associate Food Editor

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"For tender, fluffy cakes, apply a light hand. Fold in whipped ingredients carefully, and don't overmix one time yous add together the dry out ingredients." — Sharon Franke, Manager of Kitchen Appliances & Technology Lab

"I always put strips of parchment down on the cake stand up underneath the block earlier icing to grab drips and spills. Yous can pull the paper out easily when done then everything looks tidy." — Emily Weinberger, Kitchen Appliances Product Analyst

"I love straight-sided cake pans (as opposed to the more sloped-sided ones). They make assembling and frosting the cake so much easier. If y'all don't have them, just use extra frosting to even out the side of the cake, smoothing it with a long offset spatula." — Susan Westmoreland, Food Manager

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Media Platforms Design Team

The iv Must-Follow Rules of Layer Cakes

1. Apply the right pan. Merely like you should always measure everything very advisedly when baking, you should ever use the exact size of cake pan chosen for. That one inch of difference makes a difference! (Ever take to scrape burnt cake batter from the floor of your oven? I have, it ain't fun.) Don't have the right size pans? Infringe or buy some. Not sure what size the ones you take are? Grab a measuring tape.

ii. Brand sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. This is particularly important for butter, eggs, and milk; it helps produce the lightest, fluffiest cakes. Unlike something flaky, like pie dough, you really desire your ingredients melding completely and capturing some air pockets. If you already forget to get your eggs out 45 minutes before you lot start, here's a shortcut: Let your eggs sit in a bowl of adequately warm water for x to 15 minutes. As for butter, endeavour continuing it upwards on its short side in the microwave and zap information technology at fifty% power in five-2nd intervals until it's just a niggling soft (this usually takes about two or three times). Do not let it cook!

3. Crumb coating is fundamental. It simply means frosting the outside of your cake — once information technology's filled and layered — with a sparse coating of icing, refrigerating the cake until the surface is just dry (typically, about twenty to 30 minutes), and then frosting the cake with the remaining icing. Think of information technology every bit primer for the icing. Aside from making frosting the cake easier, it also prevents block crumbs from tainting your pristine icing.

iv. Use the right tools. The two tools every home cook/baker should have: a mini offset spatula and a large one, sometimes called an icing knife. Without these two, I wouldn't be able to loosen the block from the sides of the pan before inverting them onto the cooling rack (dent knives and butter knives can scratch), frost the block properly, or make decorative patterns in the frosting, non to mention the other million non-block-related things I use them for.

5 Steps to Perfectly Smooth Frosting
Associate Food Editor Erin Phraner swears by this process:
1. Trim and stack your cake layers (with whatsoever filling you're using), and nibble glaze the whole darn matter.
2. Transfer the stacked cake to a paper-thin cake circle the same diameter equally (or slightly larger than) the block.
3. Frost just the top of the cake.
4. Press another cake circumvolve (same size as the bottom i) into the frosting on elevation of the block and so you take one solid cylinder with paper-thin on both ends, creating a slight overhang. Freeze until the frosting is very firm — this volition help the circumvolve peel off easily!
5. Generously press and smooth remaining room-temperature frosting around the sides of the cake using a big offset spatula and the cardboard edges every bit your guide.

Non much of a cake decorator?
Try doing swoops and swirls in the frosting with the end of a mini offset spatula. It's like shooting fish in a barrel and can yield a professional look. Or if it's really looking less than stellar, cover upwards your mistakes with a tumble of pretty berries or a smattering of colorful sprinkles.

TELL US: What are some of your secrets for the perfect block?

Sherry Rujikarn is the banana food editor in the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen.