One of the most frequent questions I get during my slice making lessons is how do I cut up the slices easily and get them looking so even and neat. I thought others may have this problem too so here are some tricks I have used to make it easy and produce great results with evenly sized slices.
1. The easiest way is to avoid cutting at all. You can do this by using silicon trays like I do for the oblong (Turkish and Orange slices) or circle shapes (like the hazelnut one above). It is more work to put in your base layer and measure out fillings into the molds but once they are set, you just pop them out with no cutting required.
2. There are two aspects with your knife that you can do to make cutting easier. The first is by having a sharp knife. When a knife is nice and sharp it requires less pressure to push through the slice and glides through in a straight line. Secondly, with your sharp knife you can dip it in warm water, dry it off and then cut. Using a warm knife allows the knife to slice through very easily.
3. While I am talking about temperature, for cutting it is important to get the slices out of the freezer and let rest for a while before cutting them. By not cutting them straight away, you allow them to soften slightly and this makes your cutting easier. I can’t give you an exact time to wait, as it depends on the slice thickness and ingredients, but you will know if you have waited long enough when you go to cut and it is easy or still too hard.
4. The next option is about pre-measuring templates. You can place your slice on a gridded board so you can line your knife up with the gridlines and cut point to point very straight. A similar option is to have a stencil that you lay on top of the slice and make marks where to cut each piece. This is what I use for my Slabs and Celebration Cakes so each piece turns out the same size.
5. If all of the above doesn’t work for you or you haven’t got the time and energy, the best option is to get me to do the making and cutting for you. That’s why I’m here, to make your life easier :]
Let me know how your slice cutting goes in the comments below. I’d love to know what works for you.