Cake rounds

If you re making a layer cake, place the cooled cakes upside down on cake rounds. Using a serrated knife, slice the cakes in half horizontally and place each layer on a cake round, so that you have four cake layers. 

To add a layer of cake to the frosted layer, pick up one of the other cake layers on a cake round, bend one edge of the cake round 2 inches away from the cake, and place the exposed corner of cake evenly on top of the frosted layer. With a knife or a clean spatula, slowly remove the layer from the cake round onto the frosted layer, dropping it gently on top. 

For a three-layer cake Place the cake layers on cake rounds. Spread V4 cup frosting across the top of one layer, then press V3 cup chopped pineapple evenly into the frosting. Place the second layer on top and add frosting and pineapple as with the first layer. For the final cake layer, frost the top but omit the pineapple. 

Gut each cake into 3 layers. Prepare I V2 batches of Vanilla Whipped Buttercream. Place each layer on a cake round and brush them with the orange-flower water syrup. Spread V4 cup Vanilla Whipped Buttercream onto 2 of the 3 layers of each cake. Stack the layers so that you have 2 cakes, each with 3 cake layers and 2 buttercream layers. 

Place your frosted cakes on cake rounds (see page 250) Place one stick into the center of the bottom cake. The stick should be sticking out of the top. Place the remaining sticks at I 1/2 to 2 inches from the center stick, with equal space between them. Slightly raise each stick and use a pencil to mark the spot just below where the stick extended above the cake. Once you mark all the sticks, remove them, cut them at the marks with a sharp knife or scissors, and... 

Cake rounds are pieces of cardboard that are coated on one side with a grease-resistant white or metallic sheet. They re handy support bases for transporting cakes and essential if you re tiering a cake (page 242)- While decorating, I typically use the cake round as the base, and then transfer the cake, with the cake round, onto a cake stand (a cake stand won t always fit in the refrigerator ). Look for cake rounds at any cake-supply store or order them online. They come in a range of sizes I prefer to use 8- or 9-inch rounds. In a pinch, you can use the bottom of a two-part tart pan. 

The dry tosylhydrazone (20 g, 45.5 mmol) is dissolved in 750 ml of 1,2-dimethoxyethane (freshly distilled from lithium aluminum hydride) in a flame-dried 1 liter round bottom flask fitted with a 240 ml addition funnel, a drierite tube and a magnetic stirrer. A 2.05 M ether solution of methyllithium (130 ml, Alfa Inorganics, Inc.—Caution to avoid the mineral oil impurity the methyllithium solution is decanted from a cold solution which contains a precipitate) is placed in the dropping funnel and added over a 60 min period. The temperature of the reaction mixture increases to ca. 35° during the addition however, no cooling precautions are required. The highly colored reaction mixture is stirred for 7 hr and then poured into 1.5 liters of ice water. The flocculent precipitate is digested for 12 hr at room temperature to speed the filtration. After filtration the filter cake is washed with 500 ml water and dried under vacuum at 50° for several hr. The androsta-5,16-dien-3l5-ol is obtained in ca. 70% yield after recrystallization from methanol mp 138-139°. 

The resulting suspension is placed in a round flask equipped with a scraper-agitator device, and agitation is effected for 48 hours in an ice water bath. The antibiotic is isolated from the mother liquor by filtration through a Buchner filter. The filter cake is washed with 5 liters of a methyl alcohol and water mixture (1/2.5 by volume) cooled to 4°C. After drying in an oven at reduced pressure, 2.805 kilograms of a greyish-yellow crude product is obtained. 

A solution of sodium ethylate is prepared from 60 g. (2.6 gram atoms) of clean sodium and 700 cc. of absolute alcohol (Note 1) in a 2-1. round-bottomed flask, equipped with a reflux condenser. To the hot solution is added a mixture of 234 g. (2 moles) of pure benzyl cyanide (Note 2) and 264 g. (3 moles) of dry ethyl acetate (Note 3). The mixture is thoroughly shaken, the condenser closed with a calcium chloride tube, and the solution heated on the steam bath for two hours before standing overnight (Note 4). The next morning the mixture is stirred with a wooden rod to break lumps, cooled in a freezing mixture to — io°, and kept at this temperature for two hours. The sodium salt is collected on a 6-in. Buchner funnel and washed four times on the funnel with 250-cc. portions of ether. The filter cake is practically colorless and corresponds to 250-275 g. of dry sodium salt, or 69-76 per cent of the calculated amount. The combined filtrates are placed in the freezing mixture until they can be worked up as indicated below. 

Methoxyphenyl)-2-phenyl-lH-imidazole. A 2-L, three-necked, round-bottomed flask equipped with an addition funnel, reflux condenser, and mechanical stirrer is charged with 500 mL of tetrahydrofuran (THF) and 125 mL of water. Benzamidine hydrochloride monohydrate (50 g, 0.29 mol) (Note 1) is added, followed by the slow, portionwise addition of potassium bicarbonate (54.4 g, 0.57 mol) (Note 2). The reaction mixture is vigorously heated to reflux. A solution of 4-methoxyphenacyl bromide (65.3 g, 0.29 mol) in 325 mL of THF is then added dropwise via the addition funnel over a period of 30 min while the reaction is maintained at reflux. After completion of the addition, the mixture is heated at reflux for 18-20 hr (Note 3), then cooled in an ice bath (Note 4), and THF is removed under reduced pressure using a rotary evaporator. An additional 100 mL of water is added, and the resulting suspension is stirred at 50-60°C for 30 min. The mixture is cooled in an ice bath and the solids are collected by filtration. The filter cake is rinsed with two 100-mL portions of water and air-dried in the filter funnel for 2 hr. The crude product is transferred to a 500-mL flask and 150 mL of diisopropyl ether and 150 mL of hexanes are added. The mixture is stirred for 2 hr at room temperature, and the solids are again collected by filtration. The filter cake is dried in a vacuum oven for 48 hr (68°C/ca. 100 mm) to give 68.6 g (96%) of the desired imidazole as an off-white solid (Notes 5, 6). 

In a 500-ml., three-necked, round-bottomed flask fitted with a mechanical stirrer and a thermometer is placed 42 g. (1.05 mole) of sodium hydroxide dissolved in 168 ml. of water. The contents of the flask are cooled to —20° and stirred vigorously as 48 g. (0.30 mole) of pyridinium-1-sulfonate (Note 1), which has been previously chilled to — 20°, is added in one portion. The mixture is stirred for 20 minutes while the temperature is kept below —5° (Note 2). The cooling bath is removed, and the mixture is stirred and warmed gradually to 20° over 20 minutes. The temperature of the dark orange mixture is then raised to 55-60° and after 1 hour is lowered again to —5°. The brown crystals that separate are filtered by suction, pressed into a compact filter cake, and washed with three 100-ml. portions of acetone (Note 3). The yield of this crude product amounts to 46-52 g. after drying on filter paper overnight or at 50° (1 mm.) for 1 hour. (Note 4). 

The precipitate is collected on filter paper (Note 7) in a Buchner funnel by vacuum filtration and is washed with 100 ml. of absolute ethanol. The solid is slurried in three 75-ml. portions of distilled water (Note 8), 100 ml. of absolute ethanol, two 100-ml. portions of reagent-grade acetone, and two 100-ml. portions of anhydrous ethyl ether. The filter cake is pressed dry in the funnel with suction by means of a piece of rubber dam, transferred to a tared, 500-ml., round-bottomed flask, and dried under reduced pressure (0.01 mm.) at room temperature for 24 hours (Note 9). The weight of the dry silver salt of succinimide is 51-54 g. (88-94%). 

Prepare 26 g. of molecular sodium in a 1500 ml. round-bottomed flask (Section II,50,d, Method 1). Cover the sodium with 625 ml. of sodium-dried A.R. benzene fit the flask with an efficient reflux condenser protected from the air by means of a calcium chloride (or cotton wool) guard tube. Add 151 5 g. of diethyl adipate (Sections 111,99 and 111,100) in one lot, followed by 1 6 ml. of absolute ethyl alcohol. Warm the flask on a water bath until, after a few minutes, a vigorous reaction sets in and a cake of the sodio compound commences to separate. Keep the flask well shaken by hand during the whole of the initial reaction. After the spontaneous reaction has subsided, reflux the mixture on a water bath overnight, and then cool in ice. Decompose the product with ice and dilute hydrochloric acid (1 1) add the acid until Congo red paper is turned blue. Separate the benzene layer, and extract the aqueous layer with 100 ml. of benzene. Wash the combined extracts with 100 ml. of 5 per cent, sodium carbonate solution and 160 ml. of water dry over a KWe anhydrous magnesium sulphate. Remove the benzene under atmospheric pressure (Fig. II, 13, 4, but with modified Claisen flask), and fractionate the residue under reduced pressure. Collect the 2-carbethoxy-epelopentanone at 108-111°/15 mm. (96 g.). Upon redistillation, the product boils at 102°/H mm. 

Rinse the blender jar and filter cake twice with 25-50-mL portions of 20% water-acetonitrile, collecting each rinse in the round-bottom flask. 

For a soil sample, weigh 30 g (dry soil) of the sample into a 300-mL Erlenmeyer Aask and add 150 mL of water-acetoniAile (1 9, v/v). Sonicate the mixture for 30 min. Filter the exAact through a Alter paper overlaid with 20 g of Celite in a Buchner funnel into a 1-L round-bottom Aask with suction. Rinse the beaker and the Alter cake twice with 50 mL of acetoniAile. Combine the AlAates and concenAate to approximately... 

Transfer the filtrate from Section 6.1.1 or 6.1.2 to a 500-mL separatory funnel and add 150 mL of 5% aqueous sodium chloride solution. Rinse the filter flask from the extraction procedure with two 40-mL portions of dichloromethane. Add both 40-mL rinses to the separatory funnel. Partition the residue into the dichloromethane. Filter the dichloromethane extract through a 10-cm filter funnel containing ca 50 g of anhydrous sodium sulfate supported on a plug of glass wool. Collect the dichloromethane in a 500-mL round-bottom flask. Repeat the partition and filtration steps with an additional 60 mL of dichloromethane. Rinse the sodium sulfate filter cake with 20 mL of dichloromethane and combine the partition and rinse solvents. Concentrate the combined dichloromethane solvents to dryness in a rotary evaporator under reduced pressure at <40 °C. 

Weigh 10 g of the sample into a 500-mL Erlenmeyer flask. Add 120 mL of water-acetone (1 4, v/v) and shake the flask vigorously for 1 h. Filter the extract through a Alter paper in a Buchner funnel into a 1-L round-bottom flask with suction. Rinse the flask and the filter cake twice with 50 mL of acetone. Combine the filtrates and concentrate to 20-30 mL under reduced pressure at 40 °C. 

Shake 25 g (dry weight equivalent) of soil with 100 mL of methanol with a mechanical shaker for 30 min. Filter the mixture through a filter paper into a 300-mL round-bottom flask. Wash the filter cake with 80 mL of methanol, combine all the filtrates in the round-bottom flask and remove the methanol by rotary evaporation. 

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