Let’s face it: Cakes are as much about presentation as they are about flavor. We all want a perfectly baked cake with a tender crumb, but we also want to bake something that will wow our fellow cake-eaters before they take the first bite.

To make a strawberry cake like I did, crush freeze-dried strawberries in a mortar and pestle until you have a fine powder. (Alternatively, blend in a food processor or use a rolling pin to crush the berries in a bag, so they're contained). To color and flavor half the Tender White Cake recipe, I used 1/3 cup (7g) strawberry powder. If you’re using 6" pans, you’ll need a 2" and 4" round cookie/biscuit cutter (1 1/2" and 3 1/2" will work too). If you’re making 8" or 9" cakes, you need 2", 4", and 6" cutters. Our adherence to quality gives us the confidence to guarantee our Divider Inserts to feed into FoodTools slicing machines for maximum speed without tearing. The Tender White Cake recipe yields about 1200g of batter, so once you’re done mixing, divide into two bowls with 600g of batter each. You can eyeball this, but do your best to ensure you have the same amount of batter in each pan. One batch of Tender White Cake, divided and transformed into two different flavors.You can use any cake recipe(s) you love here (as long as the flavors play nicely together!), but I’m making King Arthur’s very own Tender White Cake. It’s a great base for flavor modification, and results in a beautiful, soft, fine-crumbed cake every time. And there you have it — a simple-yet-snazzy cake to impress all your friends and fellow cake-lovers. It may look unassuming on the outside, but inside this cake is an eye-catching pattern ready to impress. To showcase this technique, I’m making a version that's colorful, adventurous, and summery: a pink-hued strawberry cake, a tangy yellow lemon cake, lemon curd filling, and basil Italian buttercream. Once you get the method down, the possibilities are endless. Hidden beneath that crumb coat of frosting is a sweet surprise. Choosing your recipe

While you wait, make a batch of frosting! I made Italian Buttercream, tweaking the recipe (I’m an incorrigible tinkerer) by adding basil. I love adding herb flavors to fruity cakes for an unexpected twist, and basil goes great with both strawberry and lemon. I added a touch of natural food coloring to make my frosting a little more green. One or two round layers each of cake in two different colors (again, you just need the same number of each flavor/color) FoodTools provides online and telephone technical support at no charge when Divider Inserts are used on our machines. We have service technicians at two locations with toll free numbers to assist our customers with trouble shooting situations.Allow the cake layers to cool completely. I know it’s hard to be patient when you’re excited, but this is very important — otherwise the cake will melt the filling and frosting, and it will be both unattractive and unstable. If you're looking for more creative ways to decorate your layer cakes, see our previous post about how to paint cake with buttercream. Then, mix the flavors into each half; for my cake, that means mixing 1/3 cup strawberry powder into half the batter, and 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice Powder and 1/8 teaspoon turmeric into the other. Divide the batter into four greased 6" cake pans: two pans with 300g of strawberry batter, and two with 300g of lemon batter.