Any Tips For Me As I Make My First Large Round Cake?
Decorating By bethallan Updated 18 Apr 2007 , 4:12pm by mixinvixen
Hi Everyone!
I'm going to be making my first big cake next week! I'm attempting to copy this cake that treenuge posted:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_65701.html
My dh's 30th birthday is next week -- he and his friends will love it! I've purchased a 16 inch round pan to bake the cakes. It's my first time making anything larger than a 10 inch round. I'm excited about the cake, but have some concerns, which I thought I'd tackle prior to baking the cake:
How do I make sure the cake is fully cooked in the center?
Can I bake two different cake flavors in one pan?
How can I torte a cake of this size to put in a filling?
Thanks for any tips or suggestions for me. I love the advice and info on here!!
First of all, use a heating core in the center of the pan (a flower nail works well, coated with your cake release) to make sure it gets cooked evenly.
I would bake two layers and put the filling in the middle rather than try to torte it, personally. My 16" layers always crack when I am moving them around trying to put my cake together, I can't imagine trying to torte one. It always looks alright in the end, once I've got it covered with icing.
Maybe the experts have more advice for you, but HTH a little bit 
I agree with MelissaBlack - bake two layers instead of trying to torte. A 16" round is awkward to handle. Also be sure to use the heating core or the upside down flower nail. I also like to have a helper when putting the second layer on a 16" cake. That extra pair of hands comes in handy.
I too would use two to three flower nails as heating cores and I wouldn't tort it unless you partially freeze it first to firm it up so that it doesn't break as easily on you.
Also, make sure you have a surface to flip this out onto for it to cool. I found that if I put two racks together, it works fine, but I didn't think to think ahead until it was time to flip and then went, "oh.. this is only 10 inches wide! LOL"
Melissa
I did a practice run through for a wedding I have in May, doing the 16" square because Ive never worked with a cake that big either.
The flower nail's worked well to make sure everything was cooked.
Because mine is for a wedding, I torted each layer. I had a big flat 16 x 16 cookie sheet with I used to move layers, just fine, no breaking (Brush the cookie sheet down with pwodered sugar first so the cake doesn't stick). I also purchased a 16 x 20" cooling rack to get the cake out.
i'm so glad you started this thread.
i'm in the process of planning for a 16"round also. the attendance for the party is approx 100, and since the 16" round served 90 according to earlene's link, that is what i chose to go with. i'm sure everyone will not be eating cake, and i am doing it free for a friend.
if you did do two layers, would you just underfill the pan each time so you don't end up with 180 servings? just checkin!?
Serving size is normally based on 2 layers... if you bake two 2" deep 16" rounds, that will feed the 90... not 180....
oh goodness, i did not realize that...thankyouthankyouthankyou
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