I read on one of the threads that someone said to put a plate on top of their cake as it came out of the oven so that you wouldn't have to use the cake leveler. I did that and boy did it make it leve but also seem to crush all the air out of it so the layers were very dense and small. Of course my family loved it (it was cake so of course it was good to them ). Did I maybe put the weight on too soon?

I've heard of that tip too, and didn't do it for that very reason. I like a nice airy, fluffy cake and most people around here seem to too. Can't imagine "squishing" a cake to make it level. Would rather use my big wilton saw lol

i tried it once and it worked...although i did not put a plate..after taking it out of the oven i used a viva towel (or any other brand of towel) and i lightly pressed the center...be careful though, be sure to have something to protect your hand from the steam..i learned this in a hard way..

i hae to admit I too have never understood why anyone uses the "squoosing" method.

A cake leveler is reasonably cheap, especially given the amount of use it gets. Given all the work put into cakes, using equpiment designed to level and torte cakes (which is the base of all of the work) just seems like common senese to me.

I've tried it too and did not like the result. The top of the cake became hard and dense and I ended up leveling off the top anyway...and that was the purpose of smooshing the top was to not have to level. Just my experience!