OK, I'm new to this so hopefully this doesn't sound dumb. I want to make a 2 "floor" cake where the bottom round is slightly bigger than the top. Not sure if this is called a 2 layer or 2 tier cake

I figured I can frost the bottom as ussual, but how do I plop the 2nd, smaller layer on and frost that? I would smear the top layer of the lower cake!

How do you experts get a nice crisp edge on a round cake?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Ice the cakes seperatly, put the smaller one on a seperate board and once it's iced and smoothed place it on the larger cake. What you are making would be a tier cake, you should dowell.
Once you have the iced tiers placed together you can decorate the cakes, stuff like putting a border on and such.

Hello!

You need to frost both layers before assembling. Once the top tier has been frosted (you have to put a cake board or seperator plate under it) you set it on top of the doweled bottom tier. Then add your borders, etc.

Good luck!

Julie

Here's what I found:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-43461-stack.html+tiers

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-42297-stack.html+tiers

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-43022-stack.html+tiers

http://www.cakecentral.com/article5-Solution-For-Cake-Bulging-Between-Layers.html

http://www.cakecentral.com/article23-Teired-Stacked-Cake-Construction.html

http://tinyurl.com/y22z72

HTH

This is a picture of the type of cake I am thinking of. Do all these have boards under the smaller cake?
I didn't know that. That would be hard to cut and serve, you'd have to dissasemble the cake to serve it?

Yep, that's exactly what the servers do.

Here's info on cutting:

http://tinyurl.com/y64gg5

http://tinyurl.com/y256hh

HTH

Has anyone tried making a cake like this without the board? It's for a kids' birthday party and I don't want to have to dissasemble anything. Just wanna cut and serve!

If you are making a tiered cake, you have to provide proper support or your top tier will sink down into your bottom tier. When I cut a stacked 2 tier cake like this, I don't disassemble it. I just start with the top tier, cut down to the board and serve. When you serve all that cake, pick the board up and start serving the bottom. It's also not hard to disassemble the cake. All you have to do is take a spatula and lift the top tier off and start cutting!

I never thought about the top tier sinking into the bottom tier without support. Thank you for all the advice and saving me from making a disaster.