If you’re anything like us, you take cake very seriously. And rightly so! A cake is a delicious morsel that should be enjoyed entirely, however the anxiety of cake cutting can sometimes put a slight dampener on a good sponge! There is a pressure that comes with being in charge of the cake knife that is unlike any other, however, we may have the solution to all your cake cutting woes!
Why is cutting a cake so hard?!
Cutting equal slices of anything is difficult, and when it is something as crumbly as a cake, it is even harder. Making an educated guess of how many children you can feed a round birthday cake to – without anyone kicking off at the sizes – requires serious Mommy math and the pressure almost negates the pleasure that cake brings.
Beautiful cakes are the worst
In a time when a basic Victoria sponge cake just isn’t good enough, this issue is increased ten-fold. An amazing, Instagram-worthy unicorn cake for example – it might look incredible but how are you supposed to cut that thing!?
Serving sizes
This issue is complicated further by endless requests for varying sizes of cake serving. People will ask for a sliver (what even is that?!) and others will want a fat chunk with loads of icing. Children will be sneakily measuring their slice against siblings and heaven forbid they be different! (At this stage the best option is to just eat the whole cake yourself!)
You’re doing it wrong
Where you are going wrong, is the old, outdated technique of cutting a circular cake from the middle. Although triangular slices of cake are aesthetically pleasing, and a little wedge of cake is fun to eat, this is not the most efficient way to cut cake. Prepare to have your mind blown!
A cake hack
Forget everything you know about cutting cake! Start by making a horizontal slice from the edge of the cake, as if you were making the circle flat on one side. Make this around an inch wide – you can change the sizes as needed in the next stage but until then, keep it all equal. Lay this slice down on a board and slice this strip into equal sized squares. This section is great for those who like the most icing as they will get the edge piece. There will also be smaller slices for those just wanting ‘a slither’.
Repeat as needed!
Complete these two steps again as needed. If you hold a chopping board, or cake board, against the exposed part of the cake as you slice the inch thick strip, you can then gracefully lay the board down, with the cake on it, ready for cutting – amazing!
Cake perfection
These slices of cake will be beautifully cut and you can float around smugly as you place them on paper plates or in party loot bags. It reduces the risk of crumbs (and therefore cake wastage!) and arguments about who has the biggest slice. It is much easier to vary the size of a slice if needed using this technique over the classing triangle way! Everyone will think of you as the cake slicing King/Queen!
Test it out
Really, you need to test this out. Right now. Immediately. So get baking, or pop to the shop for a round cake and start practising so that when the next family party comes around you can astonish everyone with your amazing cake cutting skills. That’s reason enough to celebrate with a whole slice of cake!
