What are Double Barrel Cakes

Double Barrel Cakes have become a new trend. They give you an opportunity to extend a design far and wide opening up a whole new world of possibilities. While they are not easy or difficult, here are a few basics worth paying attention to. This post explains all about double-barrel, and a few tips that may help you along the way including serving and pricing.

Double barrel vs. tall cakes

Often, people are confused between double barrel, tall or extended height cakes. That is why I dedicated a whole post explaining in detail what is tall or extended height cake.

This purple twilight cake is a double-barrel. Meaning, extended tier. While this pink crown cake is a tall cake, meaning an extended height.

What are double barrel cakes?

• A double-barrel is two or three cakes stacked one on top of the other.
• Usually, they are made with four or more layers, each layer 2 to 3-inches tall.
• A double-barrel cake can be about 8 to 10 inches tall. Sometimes taller. 8 inches is usually a more manageable height.
• What is very important about these cakes is to ensure that you have a cake circle as support in between every two layers
  (2 x 2” layers) (see Tip Thursday image below).
• Ensure you dowel the bottom tier well, so it can carry the weight of the top tier.
• If you do not dowel, the bottom tiers will collapse under the weight of the top tier.
• A wrapping method is the best way to cover double barrel cakes with fondant. But, it is also possible to cover them with the traditional drape method.

The middle tier of this cake is a double barrel

Made with two 7-inch round cakes, each 5 inches tall, stacked one on top of the other with a cake board in between. Then, covered with ganache as one cake.

Video - How to make a double barrel cake

Example of  tall or extended height cakes

This burgundy is three layers of cake. Each tier is made of 2 x 3 layers cake. Each tier has a cake board under it, but there is no cake circle inside the individual tiers.

In contrast, the middle tier on the other cakes is two 7-inch round cakes, each 5-inches in height. There is a cake board in between the two cakes but it is ganache and covered with fondant as one cake.

Servings sizes and pricing

Tall cakes

Well, it's just one extra layer, so it really only makes your cake taller. As a result, each serving is a taller slice of cake not necessarily more servings.

Of course, you could serve half a slice if it is for the family. But, in general, you want to give your guests a good slice that starts from the top to bottom. It's aesthetically more pleasing. So, commercially it does not add extra servings. However, financially it does add extra cost. So, I personally have different pricing for my standard vs. taller cakes.

Double barrel

Yes! It's two full cakes with a cake board in between. So, it can be separated and served as two cakes. Therefore, you have extra servings and you prices it as two cakes.

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