For a single sponge you’ll get away with a bread knife. For a stacked Christmas cake, a layered chocolate cake or anything you plan to cover in icing, a cheap wire leveller is one of those tools that makes you wonder why you spent years sawing at domes by hand.
The problem with a knife is your eye. You think you’re cutting flat, then you lift the top off and one side is a centimetre thicker than the other. Stack two of those and the cake leans. Cover it in marzipan and the lean shows through.
What a leveller actually does
It’s basically a cheese wire on a frame. The wire sits in notches on two little feet, and the feet slide along the worktop as you cut. Because the feet stay on the counter, the wire stays at the same height all the way through. You set it once and it can’t wander.
Wilton’s is the obvious place to start. Their small cake leveller handles cakes up to 10 inches wide, which covers the 6, 8 and 9 inch tins most of us actually own. The wire is adjustable, there’s a blade setting guide, and it’s metal and plastic, so there’s not much to break. Cleaning is a wipe with a damp cloth before and after use.
When a knife is fine
- A traybake you’re cutting into squares.
- A Victoria sponge where a bit of a dome on top just looks homemade.
- A loaf cake. Nobody levels a loaf cake.
When the leveller earns its spot in the drawer
- Any cake that’s going to be stacked. Flat layers are the whole game.
- Splitting one deep sponge into two or three thin layers. This is where a knife really struggles, and the wire is almost foolproof.
- A Christmas cake you want to turn upside down for a flat top before the marzipan goes on. Trim the dome off first and it sits level on the board, which also makes the job far easier if you’re icing it on a cake turntable.
A few things that make it go smoothly. Let the cake cool completely, ideally overnight wrapped in cling film, because a warm sponge tears. Use a gentle back and forth sawing motion rather than pushing straight through. And keep one hand flat on top of the cake so it doesn’t slide.
Bake 12 inch tiers for weddings? Get the large version. Bake two or three layer cakes a year and a Christmas cake? The small one is plenty, and it lives in a drawer.
