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I am by no means a pro . . . but, if you can avoid it, don't substitute margarine for butter - the results with butter will be much better. (The chemical makeup of the two (butter vs. margarine) is very different, i.e., they produce different results.) I would use butter in the frosting, although if all you have is unsalted, I would use that over margarine.

1. You do not have to flour the pan if you are using parchment
2. I leave it on the counter. I only refrigerate cookie dough, not sure what would happen to cake batter if you refrigerated it.

@MrsHotDog: Yup, I agree with @mslipgloss - real butter is the way to go. If you had salted or unsalted and it asked for the other, you could make do with that. Margarine just isn't the same. You can find reasonably priced butter at Walmart and Aldi's, I've found.

It's not a bad idea to refridgerate the extra batter when the first layer is cooking, but you may need to bake it for a few minutes more since it will be cold. Real butter is the way to go. Also, if you want the frosting to look pretty, try to brush off any extra crumbs and do a quick crumb coat before frosting.

1. i still "flour" the parchment paper so it comes off easy - i say "flour" because when i'm lazy i just use the Pam baking spray (a great buy). i spray the whole pan first, including the sides, then put in the parchment, then spray on top very lightly one more time. i'm a little paranoid about cakes sticking to pans.

2. cakes in round pans don't take too long to bake, so I would feel ok with leaving it covered on the counter for the duration of the baking time.

3. always use unsalted butter in baking recipes. usually in most recipes, they will call for a certain amount of salt to be added anyway, you don't want to increase the salt in the recipe by using salted butter. no margarine substitutions!

also, it really helps to have the butter come to room temperature before using it to make frosting. it makes a difference!

1) I always spray and/or flour the pan before and after parchment (actually, I use a nifty product called Baker's Joy which is like...floured spray, lol). It might be overkill, but I'm paranoid.

2) I've never had a problem leaving cake mix out. I mean, if it's like 90 degrees in your house I'd throw it in the fridge for a while but I've never had any adverse effects from using cake batter that's sat out for an hour or two....even in a warmish kitchen.

3) I always, always, always use unsalted butter. Like PPs said, you can always add salt to the frosting if you think it needs it, but margarine is just ick (at least when it comes to baking, in my experience).

I red velvet cake. My favorite recipe is from Bakerella.com , and I use the cooked frosting from Tastykitchen.com (http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/thate28099s-the-best-frosting-ie28099ve-ever-had/). It's sublime.

Good luck!

@MrsHotDog: I always use sticks of unsalted butter (I buy them in bulk at Costco and freeze them)...so 1 c of unsalted butter=2 sticks.