The cake double flip. Or how to stack a layer cake.

Just a quick follow up to my cake post the other day. Does everyone know this trick? You'd think that stacking a layer cake would be easy peasy but if I don't do it this way the top cake ends up cracked or all over the counter. Apologies in advance for bad food pix.... I did this at night.

You'll need two plates. 

Let your cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes when you take your layer cakes out of the oven. Then turn them out onto a cooling rack. You might have to tap the pans to get the cakes to come out. Then let the cakes cook completely. I think it works best if you use two separate cooling racks - one for each layer.

This makes it easy to flip the first layer out onto the serving plate. Having the bottom of the cake rest of the plate gives it a more stable base.

First layer done. Top layer ready to flip.

Now add your fillings. In this cake I used lemon curd and lemon-cream-cheese frosting. 

Now for the double flip.

Flip one.... The cake off the rack and onto the second plate.

Turn the top layer out onto your extra plate. This makes it so the top of this layer is face up. But you want the bottom of this layer to be the top of the cake - clear as mud?  This way the top of the cake will be mostly flat. You can also just cut the round, curved part of the cake off so that it's flat but come on, that is a waste of cake!

Here comes the double flip........

From the plate, flip the top layer onto the frosted top of the bottom layer.....

Now the bottom is the top! If you'd just done one flip the top of the cake would be face up.

Voila!  The bottom of the top layer is now the top of the cake! Easy peasy!

Done! Now the bottom of the second layer is the very top. Nice and easy to frost.

This always seems like magic to me. Cake magic is the best kind.

I made this cake for someone's birthday and they were very appreciative. The cake is super duper lemony.... a nice pick-me-up from traditional holiday tastes.

Happy Monday everyone! Do you do the double cake flip?