Best Cake Building Tobaccos

I have heard burley as well. But overall you will probably hear just smoke it, and the type of tobacco doesnt matter. I watch for any hunks of tobacco left over on the sides and bottoms, pick those off the sides, wipe it out after it cools down. So burley.

Condor will also achieve the same results especially with a meerschaum pipe!

For me....i find that Barbary Coast builds cake fastest, at least in my pipes.

Building a cake is not an end in itself, it is part of an ongoing process. The point is not to do it quickly, but to do it well. The most important reason for a cake is to protect the briar, but the second reason is nearly as important. A well seasoned briar has a better taste than raw briar since the wood is no longer a significant part of the combustion process.
I firmly believe that a new briar should be broken in with the tobacco(s) that you intend to smoke in it on a long term basis.

Agree with kcvet67, smoke what you like in your pipe and the cake will form. If you don't like Carter Hall (I do) don't smoke it just to make cake "quicker" but rather smoke what you like best, or a mixture you intend to smoke in that brier.
Pipe smoking is about enjoyment, not cake making, my grandfather never said.

It's almost counterintuitive. First--the advice given by kcvet is right on target. After all, it's common sense to dedicate a pipe to a particular tobacco, and it stands to reason that you should build the cake with the tobacco you intend to smoke. That said, and I admit that this is highly subjective testimonial, I too have found tha cake seems to build faster with burley. And here's why it's counterintuitive: cake is carbon resulting from the sugars in the tobacco that have burned and adhered to the bowl. Here's where it gets interesting. Virginia has a higher sugar content than burley, so you would expect it to form more (does more equal better?) cake than burley, yet many of us are of the opinion that burley forms the better cake. Go figure. And Latakia has an even higher sugar content, so we would expect English/Balkan tobaccos to form an even better cake. And aromatics, many of which have a higher sugar content than the foregoing should be expected to form a very good cake indeed. I am aware of the belief held by many that these tobaccos, precisely because of their higher sugar content, form a softer cake that doesn't adhere as well to the bowl, but it isn't a belief that I hold, nor do I know of any scientific evidence to show whether one method is superior to another. Further, I'm one of those who likes to line the inside of the bowl with a thin smear of honey prior to breaking in. I know that there are detractors who maintain that this method also leads to a softer cake that doesn't adhere well, but the method is recommended by Neill Archer Roan, among others, and my subjective observations don't seem to indicate a problem when honey is used. Again, in the absence of hard, scientific data, all we are left with is the anecdotal information which I and others are all too willing to provide. After all, as I said earlier, cake is carbon (mostly), and when a sugar is oxidized, carbon is what you're left with. And here's the point: in the final analysis, the carbon doesn't care what the original reducing sugar was. Dextrose? Ok, we can burn it and get carbon. Honey, comprised of glucose and fructose--same thing. What we need is a comprehensive analysis of cake, to see what else is present beside carbon, and that missing scientific study of how the different tobaccos form cake. Absent that, we are left with that anecdotal information which many, mysel included, are all too willing to provide.

Dedicate pipes to specific (or, very similar tobaccos). If you want "cake", just don't ream it out after you smoke it. I do not recommend this, however. I always ream and clean every pipe after every smoke. I also alternate pipes and do not generally smoke repeated bowls in a given day more than two or three at most. I have 50 pipes in rotation and dedicated to specific (or, very similar blends). The ideal cake is about the thickness of a dime!

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I don't know much about cake building but I'm assuming you would kneed a nice even burning tobacco that's burns down to a nice white ash and smokes just a little wet enough to mix with that ash.
Based on what I have smoked so far the best blend for building cake would be the new version Three nuns.
It burns really well and makes a nice powder like ash also it leaves a little wet in the pipe so after smoking a bowl cover the top shake it, allow it to sit for 15-20min and ream with paper towel after every smoke repeat this and I would assume you would eventually have a decent cake built up.

I'm one of the minority who dissent on cake-building, but I do love burley, so I'd go with Carter-Hall, or

any one of the C&D burley blends. Carter-Hall is a nice mild tasty tobacco that most tolerate well or

thoroughly enjoy. I just want a good layer of carbon but not the dime-thickness so often mentioned.

Cake leads to reaming, which few do well, so reaming leads to damage minor or overt. All you need is

a thin resilient layer of carbon. I scour out (wipe vigorously) the bowl after each smoke. My decades old

pipes thank me. Tobacco tastes great.

I've shared this before here and I think it's worth re posting. On a new pipe, especially one that has no pre-carb, smoke half bowls to a fine ash and stir it loose with the pick on the pipe tool. Cover the bowl with a business card or some likeness and shake it all up. Dump the remaining ash and run a cleaner through the stem, shank and into the bowl. Place pipe on the rack, rest it and repeat for a couple weeks. You will have a good foundation for cake building the first time you do this. My 2 cents.

I use CH or PA to break in my pipes.
Burley burns cooler and both blends will smoke all the way down to the bottom without fail.
Besides not ghosting, I also feel like these blends taste better with corn or raw briar. :wink:

Is it possible that the antibiotic properties of honey would be another reason it's so commonly recommended?