Hi Susan,

If you want cautionary example to inform your undertaking, here’s my advice. My first run baking I used 6” and 9” pans; however, I failed to notice that the 6” pans were 2” high and the 9” pans were 1.5” high. Thus—and because I did not have a scale to weigh the cake batter precisely—I eyeballed the batter quantity and ended up with two very high 6” layers and two very short 9” layers.

I would say that the magic strips are an absolute must. I did the heavy duty foil and wet paper towel trick and found it worked perfectly but was a little time-consuming. I think I will plan on just getting the strips next time.

Sadly, shortly after I did the baking, everyone in the household got hit with the flu, and I ended up having to order my daughter’s birthday cake while I ran the sick ward. The bakery cake was delicious, but I was so disappointed that I didn’t get to bake her cake myself!

Good luck!
Keri

What a BUMMER!!  Happy Birthday to her anyway!

I have decided to use 7” and 10” pans, both sets are 2”, and I have lots of cake strips. In fact, just bought a set of large ones for the 10” pans. I saw the references to home-made ones after buying them, and wondered if I wasted my money - but it did sound tedious.

I am set to bake tomorrow, without a special pre-test, so I’m really nervous. I am using Rose’s rose factors for the first time. I’m REALLY nervous. Did you do that?

I didn’t do the Rose factor, but baked from TCB’s recipe for a three-tier cake. I just didn’t make the batter for the 12”. The cake baked up fine—except for my goofs. Don’t sweat it! Even if you run into problems, you’ll still have a delicious mistake. I froze my goofy layers and was able to use them for dessert on Easter.

The Rose factor is easy… just read through it slowly and I find it’s helpful to do all the math ahead of time.

God bless computer spreadsheets!  I really wouldn’t trust my own math.  I’m even holding my breath that I set up the calculations properly in Excel.
I’ll bake tomorrow, and we’ll see on Sunday. (Unless, of course, something is SO off that it’s obvious out of the oven.)