So today I went to get my masterpiece out of the refrigerator ( my génoise cake) and to my surprise it didn't look half bad! We then moved on to some torting and filling techniques. Torting cakes can be very intimidating and if you're a perfectionist it can drive you to the bottle! But for the first time I was able to get a nice level cut just by using the right tools and techniques. So lets go back to the beginning, cutting the top layer. This was done really by eyeballing.
Now after leveling the top, we measured our cakes with the goal of having 3 X 1"layers of cake. After measuring we marked our cakes where we would be torting. Then, using a long serrated knife and with elbow to the side of your body we gently scored the cake while rotating it on a cake turn table. Interestingly enough, if you keep your elbow in place it makes the scoring much easier and straighter! Again, we did this for the second mark on the cake.
After scoring the cake, we then proceeded to cut through along the scored lines and came out with some pretty leveled layers! Now keep in mind that this was a small 6" cake, so I'm assuming that it would be a little more difficult for larger cakes, yet it seemed to work beautifully. Before separating our layers, we again scored the cake vertically so that we could align the layers as we were filling the cakes.
Now, with three layers of cake in hand, we went on to use a rum flavored simple syrup on each layer. After applying simple syrup, we used buttercream to create a dam around the edge of the cake of about 1/2". If done correctly you should end up with a 4" cake.
Now, I cut the tip of my pastry bag a little to big so I ended up with a lot of buttercream on my cake...not a problem says my instructor, we can fix it! But before that, we used a light coat of apricot jam for filling and more buttercream on top. So how did we correct for the excess buttercream layer? Simple, when we put our next layer on top we pressed down hard enough to to have excess seep out and just cleaned it off with a spatula. This also helped with leveling the cake! We repeated the process with 2nd layer and topped off with third layer and some simple syrup. We then crumb coated our cake and into the fridge it went to set. Quick tip: Before crumboating the cake we inserted a skewer to help stabilized the cake, pretty useful when dealing with larger cakes. Next on the agenda: covering your cake with buttercream and some pipping. Pictures coming, don't expect anything fancy yet! ;-)
Peace, love and cake my friends!
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