I've actually done some cake decorating (non-professional, but I did take a few classes), and I'll go with an option you didn't give:
- Only bake one cake and split it in half (reduce the temperature of the oven, longer time, and if necessary, use cooling strips).You'll likely need taller pans for this -- you'll want light colored aluminum, 3" high for most general purposes. (dark pans absorb heat too quickly, so the sides set before it's risen properly). Level the cake (trim the domed-ness of the cake off), and stack the cake upside down, so you have the nice cake-pan edge on the top layer.
If the cake is too far domed, trimed it down some and save the removed bit. Stack the cakes (again, upside down), crumb coat it, and take the removed cake, crumble it up into some icing, and then pipe that as a sort of filler around the bottom of the cake. to make up the gap.
If you're going to be filling the cake with something like a pudding or custard, stack the first layer like your answer C, pipe a ring of icing around the edge to hold it in, fill the custard in, then stack what had originally been the bottom of the cake (again, upsde down). But make sure to make it thick enough in consistency, and thin enough in height -- I had an incident once where it formed a slip-plane, and the cake started ejecting the top layer off of slices.
To level the cake, you have two options -- they make special devices for doing it, which is basically a wire cutter on adjustable legs, that you can pull through the cake at a fixed height. (also works for splitting the cake so you can then fill and stack it), but if you have a good long knife, a fairly steady hand, and a turn-table, you can:
- put the cake on the turn table.
- holding the knife steady, spin the cake and move the knife slowly in towards the center.
I find that a plastic cutting mat works pretty well to help get in there and take the layers of cake off after you've split them.
If you're going to be stacking cakes very tall, you'll want to use a pound cake recipe, or augment a boxed cake mix -- add in a box of instant pudding to firm up the resultant cake.
That's a really good question. I imagine it was probably stabilized with something that stays solid at high heat, b/c hot cheesecake would be fairly soft. Was it warm all the way through? My wild guess would be they rewarmed it in the oven, then (if needed) blasted with a blowtorch for crispiness.
Best Answer
Mind what you cut the tiramisu with - your knife might not be sharp enough, or even too sharp, or of the wrong kind, or using the wrong kind of technique (pull vs push vs rock cut give different results here).
Exactly the same, of course, applies to the camera equipment used.
But what matters most is how to light the texture of the cut - light it head on and in a nearly collinear to the camera fashion and you will suppress a lot of the texture since highs and lows will be equally lit. Light it from the side and you will emphasize the texture. A combination of both will probably work best. Mind what shadows (of the whole piece of tiramisu) you will cast, and also consider these shadows in the plating and background you use. Mind that white plates can act as a reflector lighting textural features from below (which might be desired or undesired) - but be aware that unwanted hard shadows (moreso if they pick up a color cast) on white backgrounds can be easily overlooked when framing the picture but can look atrocious in the final result. Consider polarizing filters or even using cross polarized lighting if reflections from shiny crockery or shiny, glazed parts of the dessert give you problems.