Be prepared to be amazed.

I would like to share with you all the best $2.99 I have spent in a long time. It is called a cake leveler. I happened upon it in the cake aisle at Michaels Arts and Crafts, and my cake decorating life hasn't been the same since that day.

So, you bake a cake, take it out of the oven and it looks like this:




But you don't want this. You want the cake to be nice and level and smooth so you can layer it and frost it, and make it pretty.

That is where the $2.99 leveler comes in. The leveler is a curved base bar with a piece of wire that runs across. There are little notches on each side of the bar so you raise and lower the wire depending on the desired height of your cake. So, you set the height, gently saw across

And then you have a nice flat stackable, frostable top. (More on the icing dam to follow)

When you bake a layer cake and want to fill it (I like to use pudding). You can create an "icing dam" around the edge. This will keep the filling from oozing out the sides as you frost and layer your cake.

Have fun!