I'm going to have a mild nervous breakdown before this topsy turvy cake is over with...and I just started!!! This is really just a vent, but I could use a laugh right now! And I thought I'd share with people who understood...
So I just was baking the cakes for my bottom tier-a 8", and 2 10" rounds (I didn't have a 9"). I thought my recipe would fill those but it only filled one 8" and one 10", so right before they were coming out, I halved my recipe to do one more 10". When I pulled out the cakes, I started thinking that I didn't spray my 8", and sure enough, I didn't, and it's a mess. If I had just made another full recipe, it wouldn't be a problem, but I didn't! So now I'm thinking about trying to salvage the 8" but it's going to be the bottom and I'm scared it's going to be a mess, and I still have to make another (different) recipe for the other tier. It's not the end of the world, I guess, but the whole being preggers and raging hormones really make me want to throw down the apron and start crying!
Anyway, thanks for the vent, and hopefully someone will give me a good laugh, cause it's not the way to start off this cake!!!
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Here is a good one for you. While my kids are now teenagers they still suck the life out of me. I usually do cakes while they are at school or later in the evening when no one NEEDS something from me. I was doing an 8" three layer baby shower cake for a friend of a friend (and getting paid for it) and my day got crazy with phone calls and STUFF. Needless to say I was still assembling it when the kids were getting home from school. In the middle of the after school craziness of my house I was trying to torte and cover a cake in fondant. I finished the cake and didn't think about it until the middle of the night. In my dead of sleep I woke up wondering if I had removed all the parchment paper from the bottom of each cake layer. I could not remember for the life of me. So at 3am I am going through the garbage dumpster in my garage trying to find all the used parchment rounds. I had made up my mind if I could not find them, then I was going to have to take apart the cake to ensure myself that I had removed them. Then I was going to have to reassemble and put new fondant on. Lucky for me I did find all the parchment rounds and was able to go back to sleep. So it does not matter if you are pregnant or if it has been 17 years since you've nursed a child they still suck your brain cells right out of you. Best of luck with your pregnancy and babies. I hope you got a little chuckle.

I dont really have any ideas for help but I do understand the frustration you feel. I attempted to do a Topsy turvy 3 times for I even finished one. My 1st one I wanted to make the tiers small and use the 1 inch difference instruction like you (ex. bake a 4 5 6, 6 7 8, 8 9 10) HATE the HUGE angle it turned out with, wasnt able to cover with fondant without puckers and got so frustrated, threw it away! Next, baked 3 6in, 3 8in and 3 10in. GREAT angle after carving and covered with fondant BEAUTIFUL. the cake was not a dense cake and when I stacked it, it just FELL and crushed itself, even with a bubble straw support system. O and I cut the whole in the top AFTER I put the fondant on, NOT THE RIGHT THING TO DO!!! Thew it away! Learning from all the mistakes over the 1st 2 cakes, My 3rd Topsy, my 30th birthday cake was a HUGE success! LOVED IT! I have a pic in my photos and am so proud of it. So I do understand the FRUSTRATION. And I have 2 babies, 18months old and 28 months old, only 10 1/2 months apart. I was pregnant again when my newborn was only 2 months old. so I also get the hormonal influence Sometimes it just helps to CRY and move on. GOOD LUCK (((BIG HUG)))