topsy turvey cake

Pinterest and I have a love-hate relationship.  as in, I love ideas I find there.  And usually love how they turn out.  Usually.  But hate the occasional stress from biting off more than I can chew. Or something not working the way it should (like a coconut oil deep conditioning mask.  great idea.  except it wouldn't wash out. ugh.)

But this one was a good find.  I fell in love with the idea of a topsy turvey cake and combed Pinterest for ideas to decorate it in a CandyLand theme.  So here's my how-to/what I learned.

Baking
I baked 9 in, 6 in and 4 in round cakes.  Each was a double layer cake (and each a different flavor). (it really does have to be double layers to create enough height for the angles.)  The chocolate and strawberry cakes (bottom and top, each with a layer of fudge filling) worked really well, behaving the way they should.  The cake made from angel food compressed for some reason so the middle section of the finished cake did not have the same height of the bottom and top layers.  It worked but didn't look as good as it should have.  But the bigger problem was that I used strawberry jam as the filling on that layer.  It tasted great but the jam caused the layers to slide and I had to use wood skewers to keep the cake layers from sliding off each other.  (no one knew and that trick may have been needed anyway.  but it sure made for lots of jokes.  "too much topsy, not enough turvey" or "topsy turvy cake is supposed to look like it's falling over...without actually falling over".  but hey, it worked and tasted great.)

Assembly
--The Bottom: I stacked a 9 inch two layer chocolate cake with fudge filling onto the platter.  I used a bread knife to cut the top layer at an angle (only the top layer so it didn't cut into the filling).  Then rotated the top (now angled section) around to increase the angle even more.
--The Middle: Stacking the next level requires cutting into the bottom section in a way that creates a level surface for the layer to sit on.  So I came in from the edge slightly and made a vertical cut into the highest sides of the circle.  Then, moving to the opposite side of the circle, I made a horizontal cut to meet it, taking out a funny triangular shape.  It creates a flat surface for the next layer, but the illusion of the angle remains, coming up just a little on the sides of the middle section.  Once the middle section is stacked, cut the top layer at an angle and rotate it.
--The Top: (rinse and repeat).  Cut into the middle section to create a flat surface for the top section to sit on.  Stack the layers on and angle them at the top as well.

Decorating
Originally I had a much more complicated design in mind.  But since the middle section was half the height of the bottom and top, it limited the amount of space I had to work with.  Plus I decided to do buttercream frosting instead of fondant.  I know fondant looks better and opens up a whole new world of decorating but it tastes bad.  I plan to try a new recipe again soon but I was looking for easy and familiar so I went with the buttercream.  I slathered frosting on, using it to create sharper, more dramatic edges to emphasize the topsy turvey layers.  (Fondant would have probably done this without so much coaxing.)  I piped in some borders on each level, decorated with some embellishments I had and topped it off with a pile of curly ribbon (which was actually made from airheads so it would have been totally edible).

Voila!  (and if I had a picture, this would all make much more sense.)