Frequently, the cake is covered with icing, but sometimes, the sides are left undecorated, so that the filling and the number of layers are visible.

Maria Parloa's Appledore Cook Book, published in Boston in 1872, contained one of the first layer cake recipes.

Whereas in modern layer cakes, layers are generally baked to a height of around 2 inches (5.1 cm) and split horizontally, another method of preparing cake layers is used for cakes like Dobos torte and Prinzregententorte: The cake batter is baked in seven or eight separate thin layers,[2] about a half-inch thick each in the finished stack.

This stack, which is the same height as the typical Western layer cake, is then frosted so that the structure is not visible.

[3] Layer cakes typically serve multiple people, so they are larger than cupcakes, petits fours, or other individual pastries.