Fabulous Fourteen

One of the tasks a newbie baker must master is portioning a round cake into even slices. It's a no-brainer if you're talking 4, 8, 12 or even 16 pieces, because basically you're dividing the four initial quarters into thinner, even wedges.

But portioning 14 *equal* slices takes practice. In the photo below, my classmate Alyssa has marked 14 slices on the top of her buttercream-iced yellow cake by pressing the large knife shown on the counter into the icing. The lines serve to guide wait staff during plating. Alyssa is adding rosettes both for decoration and to clearly identify the fourteen servings.

This photo, of the top of Alyssa's cake, more clearly shows the fourteen slices. Alyssa's done a fabulous job here. Good thing, because she, along with the rest of our class, is being tested on the skill during Saturday's class!

Let's show off a bit more of Alyssa's decorating job before I tell you the trick for getting 14 *equal* slices from a round cake. Notice that Alyssa has decorated the outside edge of her cake with coconut, and the top of the rosettes with lemon-flavored pastry filling.

So, how do you get 14 portions? Obviously by getting seven slices from each half of the cake. Go on. Try it! 

Having trouble? Here's the key: 

Hold the knife above the cake so that it's perfectly vertical. Then, angle the knife a bit to the left of this imaginary vertical line, before lowering the knife into the icing. This line marks one side of the seventh slice. Raise the knife from the icing and angle it a bit to the right of the vertical line. You've now marked both sides of the seventh piece. This requires good visualization skills! Portioning out the remaining six pieces per half is easy; you simply divide the remaining spaces into three wedges.