I was just thinking. To make an octagon can I cut the four corners off a suqare? If that works then I wouldn't have to buy new pans. Has anyone done it or do you think it will work?

I just drew it on paper and counted the number of sides that would bring, that would work! Brilliant idea!

If you partially freeze it first, it should cut more easily and be less crumblly. Hope this helps.

I would say it depends on what you are doing with it if doing a stacked wedding cake I would say no it decreases the strength of a cake when you trim off the edges of the cake for some reason.

but a single 2 layer cake I would say go for it minimum if a wedding cake I would buy the large lower pan that holds most of the weight.

Yes, you can. I have Colette Peters's books and I have read about this issue in one of them. She even has an illustration on how to do it. It's very simple , just measure the ends where the corners meet and slice them diagonally. Of course, cakes must be frozen as they need to be hard for this procedure.

I say go for it, but I also agree with Msmeg. When you cut the edges of a cake off--it weakens the structure so only do it on small cakes that are not going to bear a lot of weight.

If I was going to build a big cake out of it, I wouldn't cut the edges. It would scare me way too much.

Lisa