When removing the parchment strips from under the cake after frosting the cake, I pull the strips along the lengthwise direction of the strips, not out (perpendicular) from the edge of the cake. That way, any frosting on the parchment gets pulled against the base of the cake, instead of possibly leaving little tails of frosting sticking out from the bottom edge of the cake. Of course, piping flourishes along the base as you did hides any frosting mishaps!! But I usually make small cakes (6"-7" diameter, just right for a twosome) so don't bother with piping borders as they would look ungainly. p.s. That 10 pound cake is really something! I'd probably drop it on the way to the dinner table...that was quite a feat carrying from the test kitchen to the scale in the receiving area. Hmmm, how many thousands of calories in that cake? Julia: Your method makes perfect sense, and I always try to teach people to pull the parchment back against itself to prevent sticking, but in this case I had it so far underneath the layer that bringing it out that way would have taken a lot of the structure with it. I didn't have the heart to run the nutritionals on the Italian birthday cake. I just gave myself some weightlifting credits for toting it around ;-) Susan

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