Each time I make a cake I learn new things. This time I made a two tier chocolate cake. It was my first tiered cake, so just doing that was a big deal for me. I used the push in pillars so that was easy. Will have to try doweling next or regular pillars that don't push through, since I have a bunch of those. I wanted to write some of the other things I learned because maybe they are things you didn't know either or that you can empathize with if you do. 
Not everything is bad, though! I have a few questions, also.
* Chocolate icing is tricky to use, but so yummy! It softens up more quickly than buttercream and makes it harder to make borders with, though. The scroll work on the sides was very tricky because of that.
* CAN you use wet spatula to smooth real chocolate fudge icing? I was worried the water would seize the chocolate so I didn't.
* Chill cake covered with chocolate frosting to get it hard enough to smooth with parchment.
* Make sure you use a frosting dam around filling layers if it's anything looser than the buttercream. Wow. Glad that it was the same color, anyhow! I had whipped ganache icing and it was great, but too soft without a dam. I knew this tip and didn't follow it. Learned the hard way!
* Whipped ganache is SOOOOO Good! I added 1/2 stick butter and about 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar to it and it thickened up really nicely. Oh.. I used 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate and 4 oz. heavy cream with 2T Karo syrup and 1t. vanilla for the ganache. Then chilled it an hour in fridge, then whipped with the butter and c. sugar. Best filling EVER!
* If you are torting your layers (cutting layers in half or more), and you happen to get one uneven where one side of the layer is much smaller than the other, don't try to use that layer in your stacked or tiered cake. Trust me. Just Don't. WHAT a fiasco! I ended up having it completely fall apart on me and then having to remove the whole layer. I didn't realize til I removed it that it was in pieces because it was so unstable. Glad I took it off because in the end it looked pretty good and if I hadn't it would have been a total disaster.
* Petal cakes are miserably hard to frost so they look like petals. I keep ending up with bare spots or needing to add too much frosting to make it almost round. So what is the trick to frosting petal cakes to LOOK like petal shapes???
* The Chocolate Explosion cake recipe is GOOD! It's the one where you add sour cream and milk and chocolate pudding and chocolate chips and butter instead of oil (and don't forget the 3 eggs) to the devil's food box cake mix. It came out strong enough to hold up in tiering and so rich and yummy and still light enough to enjoy. We might use this one for our wedding cake.
* If you use regular pillar tiering with plates on top of each layer to support the above pillar and tiers, do you frost under the separator plates that lay on the layer? Do you frost on top of it? I'm confused about this part.
* Did my first scroll work on the side alternating forward and reverse C's. That was neat, but I like the top layer better with just C curves in one direction.
* Too many roses sometimes looks funny. At first I had clusters in the middle and then draping a row off each side between the pillars. It was too much or well, just looked wrong. I took them off, scraped off the frosting 'glue', and redesigned the layout. I liked it better, though not perfect.
* Quit while you're ahead. Every time I tried to perfect something more it seemed to get worse. I also liked the cake better without the ribbons and without the stems for the bouquets. It was nicer with just the bunch of flowers, I think.
* Be careful transporting the cake even across the room. I kept putting my fingers on the bottom border. Also make sure you use enough cake boards. I only used 2 and should have used at least 3 even for this one.
* Give yourself plenty of time. It took me three days to do this. The first day was baking. Day two was making icing and filling and doing the base coat of frosting. Day three was finishing, putting it together and doing the borders and attaching flowers. If I had not had the flowers already made it would have taken another day. I was kind of glad I had to remove a layer of the top tier in progress because we were able to eat some of it the day before I was finished and we were both wanting some of the chocolate so it worked out well.
* Try to center the layers on their plates. I am not sure how the bottom one got shifted so much, but it's disappointing. I did use buttercream to secure it, but didn't get it on centered. Oops!
Well, enough from me! Feel free to give me some advice. I know my shells aren't perfect and the scrolls need work and there is a lot of room for improvement. Overall I'm happy with it, but am open to advice, too.
Oh yeah, here's the cake in question (below)
Blessings,
~AngelWendy
Not everything is bad, though! I have a few questions, also.* Chocolate icing is tricky to use, but so yummy! It softens up more quickly than buttercream and makes it harder to make borders with, though. The scroll work on the sides was very tricky because of that.
* CAN you use wet spatula to smooth real chocolate fudge icing? I was worried the water would seize the chocolate so I didn't.
* Chill cake covered with chocolate frosting to get it hard enough to smooth with parchment.
* Make sure you use a frosting dam around filling layers if it's anything looser than the buttercream. Wow. Glad that it was the same color, anyhow! I had whipped ganache icing and it was great, but too soft without a dam. I knew this tip and didn't follow it. Learned the hard way!
* Whipped ganache is SOOOOO Good! I added 1/2 stick butter and about 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar to it and it thickened up really nicely. Oh.. I used 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate and 4 oz. heavy cream with 2T Karo syrup and 1t. vanilla for the ganache. Then chilled it an hour in fridge, then whipped with the butter and c. sugar. Best filling EVER!
* If you are torting your layers (cutting layers in half or more), and you happen to get one uneven where one side of the layer is much smaller than the other, don't try to use that layer in your stacked or tiered cake. Trust me. Just Don't. WHAT a fiasco! I ended up having it completely fall apart on me and then having to remove the whole layer. I didn't realize til I removed it that it was in pieces because it was so unstable. Glad I took it off because in the end it looked pretty good and if I hadn't it would have been a total disaster.
* Petal cakes are miserably hard to frost so they look like petals. I keep ending up with bare spots or needing to add too much frosting to make it almost round. So what is the trick to frosting petal cakes to LOOK like petal shapes???
* The Chocolate Explosion cake recipe is GOOD! It's the one where you add sour cream and milk and chocolate pudding and chocolate chips and butter instead of oil (and don't forget the 3 eggs) to the devil's food box cake mix. It came out strong enough to hold up in tiering and so rich and yummy and still light enough to enjoy. We might use this one for our wedding cake.
* If you use regular pillar tiering with plates on top of each layer to support the above pillar and tiers, do you frost under the separator plates that lay on the layer? Do you frost on top of it? I'm confused about this part.
* Did my first scroll work on the side alternating forward and reverse C's. That was neat, but I like the top layer better with just C curves in one direction.
* Too many roses sometimes looks funny. At first I had clusters in the middle and then draping a row off each side between the pillars. It was too much or well, just looked wrong. I took them off, scraped off the frosting 'glue', and redesigned the layout. I liked it better, though not perfect.
* Quit while you're ahead. Every time I tried to perfect something more it seemed to get worse. I also liked the cake better without the ribbons and without the stems for the bouquets. It was nicer with just the bunch of flowers, I think.
* Be careful transporting the cake even across the room. I kept putting my fingers on the bottom border. Also make sure you use enough cake boards. I only used 2 and should have used at least 3 even for this one.
* Give yourself plenty of time. It took me three days to do this. The first day was baking. Day two was making icing and filling and doing the base coat of frosting. Day three was finishing, putting it together and doing the borders and attaching flowers. If I had not had the flowers already made it would have taken another day. I was kind of glad I had to remove a layer of the top tier in progress because we were able to eat some of it the day before I was finished and we were both wanting some of the chocolate so it worked out well.
* Try to center the layers on their plates. I am not sure how the bottom one got shifted so much, but it's disappointing. I did use buttercream to secure it, but didn't get it on centered. Oops!
Well, enough from me! Feel free to give me some advice. I know my shells aren't perfect and the scrolls need work and there is a lot of room for improvement. Overall I'm happy with it, but am open to advice, too.
Oh yeah, here's the cake in question (below)
Blessings,
~AngelWendy
