Tall Cakes or Extended Height Cakes
Tall cakes or extended-height cakes are a recent trend. They have the ability to make the overall design of the cake tall, lean, and elegant. These cakes are not difficult to make. And yet, a few precautions are worth paying attention to, such as cake boards, doweling, and stacking. Also, in this post, I explain the differences between tall, extended-height cakes and double-barrel cakes.
What is the difference between tall and double-barrel cakes?
A tall cake is usually just a cake whose height has been extended. Usually, by adding one more layer. So, instead of a two-layer cake, you now have a three-layer cake. While a double barrel cake is two or three cakes stacked one on top of the other. It can be about 8 to 10 inches tall. So, simply speaking, a tall cake is a cake with an extended height, while a double barrel is a cake with an extended tier.
Let’s use the example below as an example:
- The top tier is a standard cake – 4 inches tall.
- The middle is a double-barrel cake – about 10 inches tall.
- The bottom is a tall cake – about 6 inches tall.
Standard cakes
- Most cakes are usually two layers of cake with a cake board on the bottom.
- The layers can each be 2 or 3 inches tall.
- So there can be two layers making one 4 to 6 inches tall cake. These do not need any additional support as long as they are on a good cake circle/board.
This Burgundy Stenciled cake is four tiers of a standard height cake. All of them are 2 x 2 layer cakes with three layers of filling.
This is what a standard cake looks like on the inside: 2 x 2 layers – each layer is split into two so we have three fillings with four layers of cake.
Tall cakes
As a general rule, I love it when my cakes are tall. And while my cake orders are often regular 4-inch cakes, I tend to deliver five or 6-inch layer cakes. And yet, tall cakes are so much prettier!! Don’t you think?
Look at my recent blossom white wedding cake (the photo below). These are all 4-inch layer cakes. Close your eyes for just a minute and imagine this exact cake with 6-inch tiers. Can you imagine how much more of a wow factor those 6 inches would add to this cake? Right?
- It is a 6-inch cake with three layers of cake, each 2 inches in height.
- Usually, you can stack the three layers on a single cake board/circle, as shown below.
- Such a six or 7-inch cake does not necessarily need any support dowel inside the cake. They can still hold their weight as long as they have a good cake board below. One that does not flex!!
This African safari wedding cake is a good example of a standard vs. tall or extended-height cake.
- The top two layers are standard 2 x 2 layers with three fillings = totaling 5 inches in height.
- The bottom tier, however, is 3 x 2-inch cakes with two layers of fillings = 6 inches tall (almost 7 inches tall cake).
Double-barrel cakes
- This is, again, a 6-inch-tall cake with three layers.
- But, if you split each layer into more layers, you will need to dowel and add another cake circle in between. Why?
- So the bottom cake layers do not buckle under the weight of the top layers.
- The more layers you add, the weaker your structure becomes. Hence, the more support you need.
- Also, more layers mean more movement. Hence, even a center dowel is sometimes necessary so the layers stay stacked evenly.
This would be one cake inside your double-barrel cake – can you imagine adding four more layers to this without any support? Nah, it would buckle under the weight and move around with the frosting.
Servings sizes
- Tall Cake – Well, it’s just one extra layer, so it really only makes your cake taller. So, each serving is a taller slice of cake, not necessarily more servings.
Of course, you could serve half a slice if it was a family event. And yet, in general, you would want to give your guests a good slice that starts from the top to bottom. It’s more aesthetically pleasing. Therefore, it does not add extra servings.
However, financially, it does add extra cake. Hence, I personally have different prices for my tall vs. standard cakes. - In case of a double barrel – Yes! It’s two whole cakes with a cake board in between so they can be separated and served as two cakes. So, you do have extra servings, and you price it as two cakes into one double-barrel cake.
Tip Thursday – tall or extended-height cake
I tried to create a little diagram to help you understand. In the next post, I will be talking about double-barrel cakes. I hope you find that useful as well. You can Pin this Tip Thursday on Pinterest as well as my other Tip Thursday posts.
Day 1 done.
Hello Veena,
Thank you so much for the helpful article! I was wondering if you might be able to answer some questions of mine. I plan to bake a 9” round cake for a birthday. There won’t be any tiers, but I’d like to have four cake layers (with 3 layers of filling). Each of my four 9” round pans are 1.5” deep. Would I be able to stack four layers at 1.5” each without using dowels? Or should I trim the layers to 1”? The fillings will be custard, so I’m concerned about the weight. Thanks!
Hey Paycie. This is a coincidence as I just made a fault line cake with custard filling.
You can stack 3 x 2 layers of cake up to 2 inches tall without any dowels. That is my standard cakes. Most of my cakes are 2 inches each and I stack three layers making it a tall 6-inch layer or more.
Custard fillings are fine as long as you take care the filling won’t ooze out. So put a thick dam on the outside. I highly recommend chilling the cakes as you go to prevent the layers of the cake from slipping. You can also use a skewer in the center of the cake to hold them in place while you frost the outside. But chilling is key between frosting. I hope this helps
Hi Veena, I’m Juliet from Nigeria. Thank you for your post. It was quite enlighting. I have a little problem when covering my cakes with fondant. The double barrel method. When i cover it, i see the demarcation on the cake. How can i prevent it from showing on the cake. Thank you.
Hey Juliet.
Are you have less buttercream or ganache on your cake?
The cakes must be exactly the same size – all layers.
When you torte them make sure you don’t have big gaps, so torte them at the base of the cake not too high. Trim the size of the cake if you have big gaps.
Use a cake board that’s an inch smaller than the cake (for the top cake).
Hi Veena one more question..can a spongecake with whipping cream be stacked..as I have told earlier , that I m planing to make three tiered? Will there be any problem..pls help.Thanks in advance
Yes, Epcibha. You can stack whipped cream cakes provided you dowel the cake. I explained more about doweling here in this post. How to dowel cakes.
Hi Veena.. I’m planning to make a three tier fondant cake for a first birthday..what should be the size of the tiers..can it be 8″,6″& 4″.and one more thing how tall should each layer be? Can I cover the whipped cream in fondant? thank u?..love all ur recipes
Hey Epcibha Oliver. Yes, 8, 6 and 4 go well together. You can make each tier at least 4 inches which means two cake layers in each cake. You can also make the middle tier 6 inch tall and it will look nice. Whipped cream is too light and fondant is too heavy plus whipped cream does not firm up like buttercream or ganache. So either you make three tiers whipped cream cake. And if you want a fondant cake use ganache or buttercream. Hope this helps.
hi veena
i have a question about a cake im making its a 3 tier jack o lantern cake im using a bundt pan for bottom (buttercream) middle layer round pan(butter cream) then another bundt on top. all are 10 inches and covered in mmf. do i need support or additional cake boards and how do i do this
Yes, yes, and yes. As long as you have coke on top of cake.. you must think support. So you will need a cake board below each cake. The bottom and middle will need to be dowelled, so they can carry the weight of the top tiers. For additional security, I usually add a center dowel thru the cakes so all the cakes stay in place. I hope this helps.
Ty veena
You are welcome
hello. just wanted to know if a three tiered cake with a 9 inch bottom, 6 inch middle and 4 inch top is weird for a wedding cake. all tiers will have three layers of cake so every tier is tall. I find your post really helpful and wanted to know more. 🙂 Hope you can help me out. thanks
Hey Mae. No a 9/6/4 is not weird at all. You will have a bigger gap between the 9 and 6 inch as compared to the 6 and 4 inch but it’s still not weird. You can even make the bottom 9 inch a 4 layer cake and it will look taller in height. But your 3 tiers with 3 layers each works just as well. I . hope this helps.
Thank you so much for explaining this – now it makes sense. Thank you.
Thank you, Cookie. So happy to hear you found this post useful. Thanks for coming back to write this feedback. Have a lovely day.
Hey,
My name is Glena. I really wanted to know that, for example a 6″ size (diameter) cake results in how many kgs of cake with frosting and filling and this cake has 3 layers in it?
Hey, Glena. I did not understand your question. So you want a tall cake using 6″ diameter. Well if it was on top of a tiered cake then I’d do only 3 layers and keep it proportionate to the rest of the tiers. I do not know cake by kgs – we sell by servings. But if you will need 1 /1/2 times any 6 inch cake recipe and bake it in 3 pans (or two pans can give you four thinner laters) For frosting I make a double batch and save the rest.
This is the exact information I was looking for for an upcoming cake order I have. I could not find this information anywhere until I stumbled upon this post. Thank you so much for the help, it was just what I was looking for!!
So happy to hear this post was helpful. Thank you Andrea. You are welcome.
Day 6 done