I saw a cake like this on the 'I am Baker' blog (http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/) and just had to give it a try.  So here we go again!
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I started by baking four 8 inch layers of cake, two different flavors.  This time I chose chocolate and strawberry, but any flavor combination will work.  
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Immediately upon taking them out of the oven I removed them from the pans, cut the tops off, and stacked them, cut seams together.  Then I put them in the freezer.  Hopefully this will help to bind them together.  Plus, partially frozen cake is easier to cut.  They stayed in the freezer for almost 6 hours.
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At this point I got extremely frustrated!!  The timing for cutting these cakes was very bad.  They were ready to cut right about dinner time.  Who wants to worry about mundane details like making dinner when there is a new cake project to try?  Besides, didn't I just make dinner yesterday?  So...knowing that there might be anarchy if my project interfered with dinner, I had to suck it up and throw something together.  My family got a rushed pasta dish and a swift kick out of the kitchen so I could start the real fun.

When I was ready to cut the stripes, I took an 8 inch cardboard round and drew 1 inch circles on it.  I used this as a guide to direct my cutting.  
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Then I started cutting the first circle.  I cut around the guide on both cakes, taking care to cut at a 90 degree angle.
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After cutting the first circle, I used scissors to cut off the next inch and I continued cutting circles in the cakes until I had cut them all.
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You can't see the cuts very well, but here is the chocolate cake with all the circles cut into it.
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Next I cut open all of the circles so I could rearrange them.  I did this on both cakes.
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Then I moved the centers of the cakes to two cake boards and started rearranging them, alternating the layers.  I did this until I had two completed cakes with alternating layers.
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The layers had to be bound together so they wouldn't fall apart.  This is the first time I've used a simple syrup (equal parts of sugar and water boiled then cooled).  It's normally used to keep a cake moist.  My cakes don't usually need help staying moist.  But in this case, the simple syrup helped bind the layers together.  So I gave the cake a light coat of simple syrup, then wrapped the sides with parchment paper, taking care to pull the layers tight.  I secured the parchment with a towel strip, and returned them to the freezer to set up.  I left them in the freezer overnight because I wasn't ready to frost them until the next day.  In the morning (a few hours before I was ready to frost them) I moved them to the refrigerator to thaw.
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After my frosting was made I did a light coat on the cakes to cover them.  It didn't have to be smooth because I knew I'd be covering it up anyway.
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Then I began piping the roses around the sides, using a 1M size star tip.  Sorry about the sun in this picture.  I didn't catch that.
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I piped the roses all around the edges like so.  They didn't look quite as nice as I would have liked, but for a first attempt, I think it worked well enough.  If I didn't like how they looked, I just scraped them off and piped them again.
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Finally, I piped roses on the top, and voila!  Beautiful.  There were a few open spaces along the top that I filled in by just piping a swirl of frosting in the same direction as the corresponding flowers, and it's done.  Piece of cake!  
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So all in all, I think the experiment was a success.  It was fun and, at the end of the day, there's always cake.
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I LOVE cake, but what's better than cake?  How about cake dipped in candy?  There are a lot of ways to make petit fours.  I like mine to have lots of layers with fruit fillings.  These look impressive and taste great!  I've also found a few shortcuts to take along the way.  These are pretty labor intensive, but well worth the work.

I start off with baking the cake.  The petit fours need a good strong cake to hold together so most people use pound cake.  I make it from scratch or use a mix.  It works well either way.  I also cook my cake in a cookie sheet so I can get my thin layers.  Start by spraying your cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray and lining the pan with parchment paper (or wax paper).  Make sure that you overlap the sides so you can lift the cake out easily.
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Preheat your oven to 350 and spread your batter in the pan.  Try to make it as even as possible.  Bake 25-30 minutes until it starts pulling away from the sides and is a slight golden brown.
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Cool the cake in the pan until it is only slightly warm.  Grasp both edges of the parchment paper and carefully lift the cake out of the pan.  Using a sharp knife, cut the hardened edges off the cake.
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Then quarter the cake so you have four squares, as shown below.
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Here's the secret to getting such nice small layers.  Now I take each quarter of the cake and half it again, horizontally, like this. 
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This gives me two very thin layers.  This can take a little practice, but just go slow and don't worry if they aren't perfect.
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Next I take one layer, bottom side down, and cover it with filling.  I like raspberry (I used seedless raspberry jam), or lemon curd (I usually do 1/2 a batch of each for variety).  
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I then place another layer of cake on the covered one and cover it with jam.  I follow that up with a third layer, bottom up this time, and cover it with buttercream frosting.  The scratch recipe I use doesn't rise as much as a mix, so I do four layers when I am making it.  
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I do this with all my remaining cake using either lemon or raspberry filling.  As I finish the cake rectangles I put them in the freezer so they are easier to cut.

After freezing them for about a half hour I bring out one rectangle at a time and trim the edges.
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Then I cut the remaining cake into about 1 inch squares and return them to the freezer.  I let them sit in the freezer for several hours before I dip them because they are easier to work with if they are frozen.
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After having frozen the individual cakes for several hours I prepare my dipping candy.  I have tried several options for dipping and really favor this CandiQuik which I purchase at Walmart.  Real chocolate doesn't set up as well (though it does work and tastes good) and this particular brand is less waxy and tastes better than other candy coatings I've tried.  It's a bit more expensive, but comes with it's own dipping tray and tastes FABULOUS!  Try dipping pretzels in it!  It is heaven!

Another trick I use is to dip them individually.  Some people place their cakes on a rack and drizzle fondant over them.  I find this way to work much easier and have much less mess.  I prepare a cooling rack to overlap my counter as shown below, and I melt the CandiQuik following it's instructions (adding 1/2 to 1 teaspoon vegetable shortening).  
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Then I pull the cakes out of the freezer a few at a time, place them on a toothpick, and start dipping them.
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I cover the top and sides of the individual piece (not the bottom, though this pic isn't a very good representation of that, I fudged a bit while messing with the camera).
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Then I place the toothpick through the top of the rack and pull it out the bottom.  This leaves the cake to set up on the rack.
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After the cakes have set up, decorate them as desired, and enjoy!  :-)  So good!
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I started this cake by making three 2 inch cakes per tier (see my baking and prepping page if you want more info on this).

Total time spent baking the cakes:  5 hours.  
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The prepped cakes were assembled with buttercream frosting.
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Cake carves more easily if it is partially frozen, so after they are assembled they go in the freezer.
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Now the carving begins. I wanted the cakes to be only slightly cut in and I think the topsy turvy cakes look nice with clean straight angles. So I started with the cake upsidedown, and placed the board on the bottom (currently the top) and used it as a guide to do the carving.
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After I'm done carving the sides, I flip it right side up, carve the top off at an angle, and carve out the middle of the top. The topsy turvy cake is actually an optical illusion. The cakes are not laid out at crazy angles. They are actually stacked flat just like a regular cake. So the top is carved flat in the space that the next tier will be placed. Then the next cake is placed inside the carved space, creating the angular look. I learned this all from Youtube. It's amazing what you can learn just from googling stuff on Youtube!! :-)
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Next, to steal a phrase from Cake Boss, I 'dirty ice' the cake. This means cover it in frosting.
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I get the frosting as smooth as I can. If there are problems with the frosting beneath the fondant, they will show through. You can see the smooth finish after the next two pics (in the fridge).  After smoothing it as much as I can, I let it sit for 15 minutes to form a slight crust.  Then I smooth it out using a Viva paper towel, and a fondant smoother (google 'smoothing a cake' on Youtube :-).
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You'll notice from this picture to the next that I changed the shape of the smallest tier. One of the things that I learned with this experiment is that you can't make your tiers too narrow at the bottom or they will not hold themselves. The initial one wouldn't keep it's shape and fell over. Luckily I had a couple of extra cakes because I had left over batter, so I just redid them with a slightly shorter and wider base...
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And into the fridge they go. I like them to really harden up before I put the fondant on (so they keep their shape better). I leave them in the cold overnight before I start the fondant process.

Total time spent prepping, assembling, carving, and dirty icing: 3 hours.
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Now the fondant process starts. Normally I make my fondant. I've tried marshmallow fondant, but don't really like how it turns out. It can't be refridgerated because it sweats too much as it comes down to room temperature. It tastes better than normal fondant, but I find I prefer traditional fondant instead...I do have another marshmallow fondant recipe that supposedly can be refrigerated, but I haven't tried it yet.  
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Red and black are the hardest colors to dye fondant (at least in my experience so far). It takes a LOT of coloring because the fondant is white, so you have to overcome pink and grey to get to red and black. I use gloves and a mat (see next photo for the mat) because the dye actually stains my counter, and hands.
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Now I roll out the colors and start making the balls for the borders of the cake.
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Total time spent dying the fondant and rolling out the border beads: 2 hours.
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Now to cover the cakes with fondant. Before I lay the fondant on the cake I spray it lightly with water mist so the fondant will adhere. If you lay the fondant on fresh frosting it will stick to the frosting, but my cake has been sitting in the fridge and is not sticky now.
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First I roll the fondant to a quarter inch thickness (after estimating how much I need to cover). I measure the sides of the cake and add them up to determine how wide the fondant must be rolled to cover the cake.
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Then I use my rolling pin to drape the fondant over the cake. (for bigger cakes I slide a large pizza pan under it and lift it over the cake). I had more trouble with the fondant in this cake then I have ever had. It's a high cake to begin with, and it gets more narrow as the fondant goes down. I had troubles with wrinkles. Luckily, most of the problems were minor and I was able to cover them up with the other decorations.
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Next I start smoothing the fondant and pressing it onto the cake. I use a fondant smoother and my hands to do this. I pull up the sides as I work it down on the edges and cut off the excess. Some people do this on a flat surface, but I'm not that good. I find that if I place the cake on top of an upsidedown bowl, I can work the wrinkles down below the edge of the cake, then just cut them off. Then I return the cakes to the fridge to set up again.

Time spent rolling out the fondant and coving the cakes: 1 1/2 hours.
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Now to begin the zebra stripes. Dan gave me some ideas as to how to make the stripes look realistic. He cut out those paper stripes and I used them as a guide to cut the stripes (though I cut them free hand).
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Cutting the stripes...
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Next I started placing the stripes on the cake. I lightly brushed the entire area of the cake with water to make the stripes adhere.
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I didn't use any water on the top layer of the cake, so the stripes wouldn't stick. I just let them lay across the top because I knew I was going to trim them. We opted for this design, but I could have made the stripes go across the entire top. I liked how we did it.
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Then I cut out a paper guide and placed it on the cake so I could trim the top pieces. I then slightly moistened the top of the pieces and stuck them to the cake.
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Time spent cutting out the stripes and putting them on the cake: 1 1/2 hours.
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Next I made small black balls for the top boarder and stuck them to the cake using water.
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I made the 16 by finding a font I liked and printing it out, then using that as a template for the numbers. I mixed some gum‐tex into this fondant so the numbers would harden enough to stand upright (I think that is how they make gum paste, but I'm not sure...it does the same thing, anyway). I stuck toothpicks in them so I could stand them on the cake. I made a backup pair in case the first ones broke.

Time spent making the 16's: 1/2 hour.
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Next I made the letters for her name. Again, Dan was a wonder. I was going to use block lettering from printed letters as I did the numbers, but he felt that they would look better if they matched the style of the stripes, and I gotta say, he was right. He drew them on paper, and I traced them on the fondant. I'm so glad he is artistic!!
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Time spent finishing up the fondant work: 1 hour.
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Then I placed the letters on the cake.  I slightly wet the backs of the letters so they would adhere.
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Cakes of this height and weight have to be supported with dowels or they could collapse on each other. I place a dowel in the cake and mark it to get the height.
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Then I cut the dowels...
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...and place them in the cake.
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I always assemble the cakes at the location. I'm way too scared that there could be a mishap while transporting the cake. So now I'm at the actual party. I put the layers together....
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...and place on the finishing touches. And this was what it took to make my first topsy turvy cake. Thanks for going through it with me. :-)

Total time spent making and assembling the cake: 16 hours, spread over three days.
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