The Dire Mistake To Avoid When Decorating Cakes On A Turntable

If you find yourself baking cakes often, it would be wise to invest in a quality turntable. Something like the Syntus Aluminum Alloy Revolving Cake Stand allows you to effortlessly spin your cake as you pipe on the frosting, in turn ensuring an even coat that you won't have to crawl around your kitchen island to create.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make with these handy baking tools, though, is not putting a piece of cardboard underneath the bottom layer of their cake before they start to frost it. The only exception to this rule is if you're going to decorate and serve the cake straight from the turntable. Otherwise, if you neglect to do this you'll be stuck having to shove a knife underneath the finished cake and trying to lift and transfer it to your serving or cake stand. This will surely spell disaster — and it may even cause you to drop your cake on the floor before you can get it to the stand.

Start with your turntable and a piece of clean cardboard that's about the same size as your cake's sponge. If you're crafting a funkier-shaped cake, you may need to get your boxcutter involved to cut your cardboard into the correct corresponding shape.

You may also need to do some extra work if your cake turntable is particularly slippery; consider placing something with a non-slip surface under the cardboard, like this AMYONE silicone mat, so the cardboard itself doesn't slide around. Regardless of the turntable's surface, you'll need to add a dollop of icing onto your cardboard before placing the first sponge layer on top. This will act as a sticky glue that holds the bottom sponge in place. If you forget to add it, you'll again risk the cake sliding off the cardboard (and quite possibly onto the floor). From there, you can decorate your cake to your heart's content. When it comes time to do the transfer, simply lift up the cake round and move it to its desired destination. This simple hack will allow you to harness your inner pastry chef and make for easy and stress-free cake decorating and serving.