Filled layer cakes are delicious and you can come up with some wonderful flavor combinations. Filling a cake is not much more work than simply icing a layer cake, so once you are committed to layering, you might as well go the extra step and make your cake really special.



For my spooky dinner party, I prepared a red velvet, raspberry filled round cake with cream cheese icing. It was delicious! To make this cake yourself, first begin by baking two 8" round red velvet cakes. Let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes in the pan and the transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cakes are cooling, make your cream cheese icing and set aside. Once the cakes are cool, trim the tops with a serrated bread knife, to make them even. Then place once cake, trimmed side down, on to your cake plate or stand.

Fill your pastry bag with icing and using any large tip to draw a circle around the edge of the bottom cake.

Now you are ready to add your filling. I used a good quality local raspberry jam from filling. Spoon a liberal amount of your filling of choice into the icing circle:



Place the second cake on top of the first, cut side down.



Next apply a "crumb coat," a thin layer of icing that keeps crumbs where they belong-on the cake-not the frosting! Once the cake is coated, place it in the refrigerator to chill for a few hours, until the crumb coat is firm.


Now you are ready for the final layer of icing. I use an icing spatula that I keep in a glass of hot water while I am icing. The hot water heats up the metal spatula, making it easy to spread the icing and create a nice smooth finish on the cake. To keep with the spook theme, I used black gel icing to create a spider web design on the top of the cake and perched a paper cut our spider on the edge.



Filling and layering a cake is easier than you may think. Give yourself plenty of time to allow for cake cooling and icing setting and you will be impressed with the results!