Ahhh... (sigh of relief) That is just the kind of easy, no frills advice I was looking for. Thanks rothnh. I will certainly let you know.
My approach is 100% the same as what Roth describes above. None of this honey crap. The only thing I would add is that my first few bowls are almost always a burly blend - I prefer Solani ABF for that.Just smoke the pipe. Full bowls, smoke it all rim to heel, none of this 1/3, 2/3 stuff. And don't worry at all about cake. Use your pipe tool (or a dull pipe knife) to clean out the ash and bits of tobacco thoroughly after every smoke. I personally follow that up with "reaming" the bowl interior with a paper towel, do the pipe cleaners thing, and put it back in the rack. Most "experts" believe a proper cake is a thickness between a dime and a nickel. My method, as I delineated here, keeps my briars' cake within a thin dime's thickness; I can't remember the last time I used a pipe reamer for cake -- many years ago for certain.