How to make a topsy-turvy cake!

Edit: I no longer update this blog but this post has been so popular and leaves so many questions for you all that I have written a new tutorial on my current blog – click here to go there!

For all of you who find me via the magical powers of Google while searching for instructions, today is your lucky day! I made a topsy-turvy cake for a 21st – my only criteria for the cake was that it was to be ‘different and crazy’, so I think this is ideal…

Before we get stuck in, I’d just like to point out that this is not for the fainthearted – I spent about 7 hours in the kitchen to make this, and my decorations are not even fiddly! If you’re in for the long haul – here we go! (if not, skim down and look at the pretty pictures anyway; if you go fast enough it’ll be a bit like one of those flip books you made at school when you were little!)

To start off with, you need a bunch of cakes. Three for each tier, to be precise. I only wanted a two tier cake, so I made 6. If you want a 3 tier cake, you’ll need 9. You’ll notice they’re not all the same size. To get that funky tapered look with less wasted cake you can make one cake for that tier in a smaller tin… Or just make them all the same size and shave off more – if, like me, you live with a bunch of hungry boys, it’ll all get devoured anyway. 😉 I made three 19.5cm cakes, two 15cm cakes and one 10cm cake. (I found it works better to keep supporting layers reasonably untapered, to prevent structural damage!)

So long as your cake is not too crumbly or fragile you’ll probably be fine using whatever recipe you fancy. I made chocolate mud cakes, because they’re a crowd pleaser and also plenty strong enough – but regular cake works fine. You can even use different flavours – just make sure the heaviest is always at the bottom.

The next step is to grab your knife and do a bit of carving. These are the three cakes for the top tier – weirdly they all look the same size, but they’re not! It pays to put the smaller one on top for this bit – it just makes it a bit easier. Once you’re done with that, flip the stack over (carefully!) and remove the top cake (this should be the largest, the one you want on top at the end).

To get the truly skewed look, you’ll need to slice this carefully – like you’re layering a cake, but from one top edge to the opposite bottom edge.

Now, rotate the top half of that layer 180 degrees, so the thick sides are together and the thin sides are together. You now want to assemble the whole stack – as you normally would when you layer a cake, smear some buttercream or ganache between each layer. Very carefully (it’ll be quite fragile now) lift your newly skewed top layer back onto the stack. A little more carving and it should look something like the picture above. 🙂

Repeat the stacking and carving for the the other layer(s). Now ice your cakes as you usually would before putting fondant on, with ganache or buttercream or the like.

Roll out your fondant (or white icing, if you’re down under!) and adhere as usual. You’ll have to do a bit of manipulation here, as the cake is oddly shaped. The first time you attempt a cake like this I suggest using forgiving decoration schemes – so you can cover up the bits that don’t work so well. And if you know how to make the fondant smooth and perfect, please comment and tell me how!

As you can see, the cake now has a whopping great hole in it. This is the bottom tier, and the ‘hole’ is a shelf for the top tier to sit on. This is the magical part, and the reason the top tier doesn’t slide off – because it’s sitting flat! I use the tin I baked the bottom layer of the next tier to trace the outline with a knife, and then cut it out. In the same way, I also traced a circle of card just the right size to sit between the layers, so I can support the tiers properly – very important, because as there is so much cake, it gets quite heavy! The small piece on the plate in front is what I cut out.

It’s best to do the bulk of your decorating at this stage – the stripes I’ve used here are easier to make before the top tier is in place. If you look carefully you’ll be able to see four wooden kebab sticks in the cake at this point. These are my supports – straws work just as well (and are much easier to trim to size) but I had these to hand.

Because this cake is going for a bit of a drive tomorrow, I also put a hole through the board for the second tier, and inserted an uncut kebab stick through it, so the top tier is held firmly in place.

And look! Now it’s taller! There, that was probably easier than you thought, huh? Not quite finished yet, though…

We need to trim around the edges to make things nice and tidy, and a few sparkly stars on top never hurt anyone, right?

A few general tips:
– a thin fondant/icing ‘snake’ made into a rim for the edge of each tier before you add the fondant makes it sit nicely – I remembered reading about this when I was looking at the bottom tier and wondering how I could have improved it, and so used the tip for the top, and I think it looks miles better
– stripes are very forgiving, and look pretty cool, and fondant cutouts can be conveniently positioned over less perfect bits
– although it only seems like you’re icing two cakes, because they’re tall and because the shape means fix-ups are quite likely to be required, make sure you have plenty of fondant on hand. I used two and half 750g packets – one of the biggest problems with my last attempt was that I really didn’t have enough
– try to make sure your ganache or buttercream is nice and firm, and if possible chill or even freeze the cake for a few minutes before putting the fondant on. I was unable to do this (not enough room in our fridge/freezer!), but if I had managed the overall look would have been neater

So there you have it. It’s not too tricky, but seriously, allow plenty of time. And feel free to ask me if you have questions – I’m sure to have missed stuff! Oh, and, if you try this out, I’d love to see photos of your cakes, and hear your tips! You can email me – rosathemad at gmail dot com or just comment here with a link to whereever you’ve posted it, if you have. 🙂