this is my first posting on here and i'm so glad to be here..i'm making my first topsy turvy cake in two weeks..i cheated and bought the topsy turvy pans lol..i'mi making three tiers, fondant covered..10 8 and 6 inches..in doing some research it appears the bottom tier should be like a pound cake ?? or a dense cake of some sort..i know i need to insert dowels..do i still need to use a seperator inbetween tiers as well> any suggestions on the type of cake best used..i'm really neverous about making this..has anyone used these pans> the directions that came with them are minimal at best.. thanks in advance for your help and i hope to post a picture !!!

I haven't used the Topsy Turvy pans but I have made a couple topsy turvy cakes.  I would recommend getting the dvd from Sharon Zambito (SugarEdProductions).  It is a great DVD and explains the process very well using regular round cake pans.

This is the last one I made using her DVD.

Actually it is an illusion.  Each tier is carved with a pocket on the top that the cake above sets in to make it level.  I could not have made this cake without the help of her video.

I highly recommend Sharon's videos.  I used another of her DVDs when I made the flowers for the cake in my profile picture.

I recently made a topsy turvy cake using the fat daddio pans.  I am a hobby baker, and had never made anything remotely this big.  I spent several months researching and preparing.  The pans worked very nicely, but retrospectively I might have carved the top angles a little more steeply.  The pans have a moderate tilt, and may not be "wonky" enough.  As state above, the bottom of each  layer is level, and sits in a cutout of the cake layer below. There are several good videos on youtube.  the layers are doweled, so the bottom level does not need to be a dense cake.  The weight of the upper layers is carried by the dowels.  I also hammered a pointed dowel down through the middle of the whole thing at the end and it was quite stable.  (I put the little guy on the top after delivery).  Hope that helps, good luck!

those qre the pans i boought...i bought the four tier set but i'm only making the 10 8 and 6 inch..did you still carve the cake or did you just sit the tiers on top of each other? i'm using fondant so i will definately dowel..you did a great job on the cake..my only question is what type of cake did you make for the bottom tier..in doing research it seems the bottom tier needs to be a heavy cake..did u use box cake or make it from scratch. i'm not sure what type of cake to use..your cake came out beautiful!!! i'm a novice at this..i've taken some cake decorating classes and made cakes for family but thats it..my god daughter it turning 13 and requested this cake..i keep telling her i'm not cake boss lol...no pressure here lol

I used a modified box mix for my topsy cake.  For each box of cake mix (Betty Crocker) I used 4 egg whites (or whole eggs for cakes other than white), 1/3 cup oil, 1/2 cup water and 1 cup sour cream.  I used to add one box of instant pudding but found that made the cake really moist and had trouble getting the cake to bake completely.  I also bake with the baking stripes around the pans.

For stability, I doweled two tiers together and then assembled and decorated them on sight.

I used the 12, 8 and 6 inch pans.  I carved the sides in a little more because the pans are only moderately wonky, but the pans certainly were easy and are a good starting point.  I am a scratch baker.  The top and bottom layers were my every day go-to deluxe Devil's food cake, which is not at all dense . (cookies and cream filling, chocolate ganache under the fondant). The middle layer was also a normal lemon cake, not dense. (raspberry filling and  lemon curd filling, with white chocolate ganache under the fondant).  Each cake was four layers of cake, 3 layers of filling.  Happy to help, good luck!

The density of the cake will not matter for support, each cake needs to be on a cardboard and doweled or sps separator (look up SPS, tons of info on this site for that type of support).  The weight is completely held by your supports, you could stack jello and be fine if properly supported.

For a topsy turvy, a denser recipe is better for the cake tiers with sides that are carved to an angle, because the angled sides decrease the stability of each individual cake and can lead to sagging or bulging (no matter if it is 1 tier or 5).  It doesn't necessarily need to be pound cake, though that would work, but you can use any denser cake recipe.  

Make sure you let the carved/filled cakes settle for a few hours (overnight, wrapped tightly with Press n Seal is best) at room temp, then ice and chill well before you cover it with fondant.  You'll want to research stacking cakes.  No cake should be tiered without the proper support - cake boards, dowels...  If you place dowels only in each tier without the cake boards in between, it won't support the cake above, the board is what rests on the dowel and distributes the weight properly.  Kind of like building a table, you need the legs and the top piece. 

Just an FYI, if you are using the pans and leaving the tilt as-is, you'll be fine with buttercream, bit I carve mine and always tilt a lot more than that, and I will not do another topsy turvy with buttercream, or a standard moist and fluffy recipe. I keep having my tiers mis-shapen, or have the lip I carved peel right down, or crumble, or crack....And I am rolling my fondant 1/4 inch thick, to help hold the sides together! 

Ive made a few topsy turvy cakes and used a topsy turvy cake stand which made it a lot easier to make because I could still make my normal shaped cakes.  I never liked making wedge shaped cakes because they never bake evenly through.  I found this topsy turvy stand from caljavaonline.com: http://caljavaonline.com/collections/topsy-turvy-stand.  There are round stands and square stands.  Its as easy as making a normal tiered wedding cake on a normal cake stand.  Love it.  And it's very durable and can be reused many times.