I just did this cake last week for my husband's-friend's-son and it was the first experience carving a cake that I've had. I was a little apprehensive when it was requested but I think it came out pretty well and it definitely was not as intimidating a I imagined. I made a practice version first and just carved with a serrated knife - which was kind of a pain. Then it dawned on me when I was making the final cake that I have an electric knife - duh! It made carving a breeze.
This sucker is THREE 9" x 13" cake layers (two white and one chocolate) sandwiched together and iced with buttercream. I used Toba Garrett's white cake recipe (which is the best I've tried), and this was my first try making her chocolate fudge cake. The chocolate cake was AMAZING. I took one bite of the scraps I carved off just to try it and ended up eating almost all of them. The only downside is that it is somewhat fragile - but I think you can expect that from almost all chocolate cakes. I got a crack when I picked it up but I just patched it with buttercream and everything worked out just fine.
Here's the layers:
And here it is crumb coated:
And the final product!