On the occasions that I don’t feel like baking my own cakes, I always visit a local bakery that I love. One thing that has always impressed me about this place is their huge variety of cake fillings. Fillings make cakes seem fancier, more expensive, and just all around yummier. I realized that I could fancy up my box cake mixes by simply adding some ready-made common fillings from the grocery store. Add some homemade buttercream icing, and you have a gourmet cake that others will think you slaved over.
Think creatively when it comes to cake fillings, and you’ll realize that there are options all over the grocery store. The best place to look is the jam aisle.
Strawberry Jam as Cake Filling
Raspberry and strawberry jams are great (and fancy) cake fillings that are easy as can be to use. More great options are pie fillings. For lemon cakes, I always use ready-made lemon pie filling, and it’s absolutely delicious.
Lemon Pie Filling as Cake Filling
A simple way to create a chocolate filling (or carmel, butterscotch, or strawberry) is to use an ice cream topping like hot fudge or hot caramel.
Hot Fudge as Chocolate Cake Filling
Add some pecan bits to hot caramel, and you have an absolutely amazing filling.
The only thing to remember when adding fillings is to be careful when you spread them between cake layers. Be sure that you don’t spread too closely to the cake edge, or your filling will spill out into your buttercream and cause icing issues. Stack your layers carefully, frost the outsides of your cake, and you have a simple and impressive filled cake.
This simple tutorial provides a quick and easy way to lend stability to tall, stacked cakes using cardboard and dowel rods.
I realized how necessary it is to provide structure and support for stacked cakes when I made my little girl’s first birthday cake. It was elaborate and tall, and as I stacked layer upon layer, the whole thing started to sink into itself! I had to take the entire cake apart, cut up some cardboard, cut some pens in half (necessity being the mother of invention and all that), and start stacking the layers with some added support. So that others don’t have to learn the hard way like I did, I decided to provide some basic tips for tiered cake construction.
Next you’ll need cardboard. You can recycle boxes that you have around the house, or you can use actual Cake Board for this. Set your cardboard aside for later.
Frost the first layer and allow the icing to form a crust.
Now ice the bottom layer of your cake and allow some time for the frosting to harden. If you don’t give it enough time, all of your frosting will stick to the cardboard support layer when the time comes to remove it.
You’ll want to choose pressure points when deciding where to place your dowel rods; I would suggest all four corners for a square or rectangular cake, or several outer points for circular cakes. Also place at least one or two dowel rods in the center area of your cake. To measure the dowel rods, simply place the dowel rod in the cake and mark the proper height with a pencil. Be sure to place the dowel rod in the same spot that it will go later in case your cake is an uneven height. Cut the dowel rod with a steak knife (perfect for plastic rods), or a small Hand-held saw. This can take some serious elbow grease, so be prepared. Then place your dowel rods in your cake.
Insert dowel rods in weight pressure points.
Place cardboard or cakeboard on top of the bottom layer.
Now cut your cardboard to size. You’ll want it smaller than the actual size of the cake (you don’t want cardboard peeking out from the side of your lovely creation!), but you’ll want to be sure to cover all of the dowel rods. If the next layer is going to be smaller than the bottom layer, shape your cardboard to the size of the smaller layer.
Stack your second layer, and repeat the process if necessary.
Place the next layer and repeat the process if necessary.
If you love the look of fondant, but prefer the taste of a buttercream frosting, this is the video for you. I admit it — I thought about making a video to demostrate smoothing out buttercream using paper towels (seriously), but I looked on YouTube and found this perfectly wonderful tutorial video already made… and I do believe it’s much much better than any video I could do.
So for everyone wanting a smooth buttercream frosting, watch this video — it’s truly excellent and really worth the time it takes to watch.
) and set them aside .
for this. Set your cardboard aside for later.
. This can take some serious elbow grease, so be prepared. Then place your dowel rods in your cake.
