Serve Cake In Uniform Pieces With This Simple Strip-Cutting Method - Tasting Table

"sweet-toothed foodies: This one's for you. Few things are more disheartening than meticulously, laboriously crafting a visually stunning layer cake, only to have those clean layers mangled by a slicing hack job. Under the unforgiving blade, once-clearly-defined layers can crumble and meld into a mess (so much for all your attention to detail). Or, worse, in the excitement and distraction of a gathering, that cake can get miscalculatedly sliced into totally misshapen, different-sized pieces. Luckily, those days are over thanks to one non-traditional slicing technique."

"To divide a round layer cake into perfectly tidy, uniform slices, start at the center and work your way out toward the edges. Effectively, the cake is cut into long rectangular strips instead of triangular wedges, starting from the cake's middle. It may seem counterintuitive to everything you know about cake-cutting, but trust us on this one. The results are worth enduring any initial discomfort from going against your familiar approach."

"To do it, grab a long, lightly serrated knife (we also recommend slightly warming the knife to yield the tidiest slice). Then, eyeball the center line of the cake, and cut out a thick middle strip along that center line. This divides the cake into rough halves. Using a flat spatula, gently remove that long rectangular strip, transfer it to a plate or cutting board, then slice the strip into individual square servings."

Many layer cakes lose their neat layers and produce uneven, misshapen slices when cut into traditional wedges. A non-traditional method avoids that by cutting from the cake's center outward, producing long rectangular strips rather than triangular wedges. Use a long, lightly serrated knife, slightly warmed for cleaner cuts, and eyeball the center line to remove a thick middle strip. Transfer the strip and slice it into square servings. Press remaining oblong halves together, rotate, and repeat center cuts until the cake is fully portioned. This approach yields tidy, uniform pieces and reduces layer crumbling; final serving counts depend on strip width.

Read at Tasting Table