You could just imagine the difficulty of torting cakes without levelers. Maybe professional bakers CAN torte and level without this tool but I can't do without it. However, I'm sure they still use this as evidenced by "professional" series of cake levelers available in the market.This is one of the more useful tools I have in the kitchen. The one i use is from Wilton (picture from their site) and it is really easy to use! Cakes are sometimes not perfectly flat. Leveling is necessary specially when decorating stacked cakes making this a must have gadget as it is simple to use. Slices of any thickness can be made--just adjust the wire at both sides to the level required. Then hold the slicing device in vertical position and cut the cake with a sawing motion.
Since you can adjust both sides of the device, you can also use this for whimsical cakes but then again, if you're like me, its not so difficult to come up with the unleveled effect! I eyeball all sides, cut with a serrated knife and then bam--a not-so-level cake slice.
After the cake has cooled (room temperature), remove the crown of the cake by using the cake leveler. Flip the cake bottom side up to provide a flat surface to decorate. The leveled portion of the cake will be the bottom or middle part and not used as the top since we don't want cake crumbs on the icing. Place the cake on a cakeboard then place on a turntable. Place the cake leveler on the side of the cake to check where the wires of the device should be placed. Move the ends of the cutting wire into the notches to reach the position desired. Keep the legs of the leveler level on the surface and cut using a sawing motion. This is better than using a knife and slowly rotating the turntable to remove the crown since you have to keep the knife level as you cut. Brush off loose crumbs.
To torte, follow the same instructions except place a line of icing first before separating the layers so you can easily replace the layers in the same position after putting in the filling.
